General News/ Debate

Finally, a topic made for news and debates. But that doesnt mean you can go ''ZHE juden ar bad! ich i hatz dem!führer for zhe vinn!!'' Intelligent debates only, but you can post any news you want, from tech news to world changing major news.

Here's a bunch of rules, more to come soon probably

No hate speech or rascism, only intelligent debates

It's not a rule, because everyone can get a fact wrong or a news report wrong, but please try to confirm the stuff you're saying so you dont post a ''aliens invade washington!!!!'' news report from something you got from www.screwedupparanoiddudes.com but wasnt anywhere to be found on the major news networks.

No insulting. do i need to say more?

No spam. No, we dont care if you tripped and fell face first on a rock, it's not friggin news.

Also, if you think debates are futile and dont want to get into one / see one but want to see the news, please just ignore the debates. Dont make meaningless posts about how futile debating is and how little it matters.

And like i said, more to come soon.

i'm going to sticky this

All of the European Union's eyes and ears are on the czech republic today. The upper house is voting on the treaty of lisbon , at least 3 out of 5 parlament members have to say yes for the treaty to be ratified. The lower house has approved the treaty with 125 for and 61 against


Here's a website for information about the treaty: http://europa.eu/lisbon_treaty/index_en.htm

And a page on that website, giving a quick and simple overview of the treaty: http://europa.eu/lisbon_treaty/glance/index_en.htm

BBC article : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8035191.stm




Map of Europe with a EU flag over it.

I can't believe they're still trying to push it through. They're ignoring that Ireland voted resoundingly against it. Not to mention that most of the European public do not want it.

no, all EU members voted for it, the only nation that just had to screw everything up for all of europe was ireland. Dont drink and vote people, just dont. And i think they mentioned why they're trying again somewhere on the website.

Why?
The only stupid thing it's done is allow France to bring back military support.
Cheese eating surrender monkeys aren't very good soldiers.

See it from the bright side ED, they might be able to throw their stinky cheese at them instead of flash bang grenades. Would be one hell of a saving and increase in effect. Ever smelled the stuff?

And a union improving trade, diplomacatic relations and freedom was positive last time i checked. Letting a whole bunch of people who've probably only heard about it on TV instead of parliament members who have spent days reading it thoroughly and considering what it would do for their nations and the rest of the world vote isnt such a good idea. It's just too important to let the normal people vote about it

Yeah, but I'm glad Frances idea for a union army failed, we really wouldn't want them leading it.All their orders would be "Tactically advance..In the opposite direction of the enemy!"

A union army's a good idea, but a french led union army is just... stupid. You dont send a retarded guy with a machinegun at a professional soldier, he'll just get frightened when he accidently pulls the trigger. It would kick bum if it was led by a nation with a better track record, or a good army. But we alredy have something like that, it's called NATO

Thingy wrote:no, all EU members voted for it, the only nation that just had to screw everything up for all of europe was ireland. Dont drink and vote people, just dont. And i think they mentioned why they're trying again somewhere on the website.

I am resisting the urge to beat you with your legs. YOU STEREOTYPICAL LITTLE PERSON. You ever, EVER, say anything bad about Ireland and I will personally hunt you down. Not every Irish person drinks, or is drunk.

You only need 51 percent to win a vote, remember?

Smited by Terra Nova. Try it again and see what happens Thingy. I don't take kindly to people making fun of my home country.

Awww, you're irish? great...

You are just testing my patience aren't you? ... It's a very good way to die you know. I'm serious. STOP NOW.

If you want to be stereotypical, do it to the french/japs.

Sorry, couldnt resist. Please dont kill me or hurt me in any way that will scarr me for the rest of my life! *Puppy face*

But really, i was just kidding.

Anyways. This is off topic.

Here's an update.


The treaty has cleared the czech upper house with a 54 for the treaty and 20 against. It will now have to be approved by the president, who is a euro sceptic. But he doesnt seem to be in a hurry, he hasnt said when he will sign it yet. But that's not all, ireland's second vote will be on next, and there probably hasnt been alot of change in the opinion toward the treaty.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8035191.stm

me naam is m wrote:

Shemuel wrote:I can't believe they're still trying to push it through. They're ignoring that Ireland voted resoundingly against it. Not to mention that most of the European public do not want it.

grammatical error fixed, i think.

Ooops. Yeah, thanks.

Thingy wrote:no, all EU members voted for it, the only nation that just had to screw everything up for all of europe was ireland. Dont drink and vote people, just dont. And i think they mentioned why they're trying again somewhere on the website.

Not all EU member states voted. Even our parliament didn't vote on it. The Prime Minister just said 'yep, sure, do what you want'

Niow I shall tell you why a more agglomerated EU is bad.


Corruption:
Corruption amongst the MEPs, permanent secretaries, and chaired boards is ridiculous. Expenses are often usually abused, bribes accepted for companies, EU grants redirected to bank accounts. The UK gives a ridiculous amount of money to the EU as it is.

Inefficiency:
Partly connected to the reason above. Money is wasted on a grand scale. Big EU buildings, large wages to EU staff. Remember that montage of all the EU members the Czech Republic commissioned as temporary EU head? The guy stole the money anyway, but who wants to pay artists £200,000 to do some bits of art anyway?
The French CAP policy- The French have insisted that they keep their CAP (Common Agriculture Policy). It pours money to the French farmers, and they refuse to relinquish this bounty. It is projects like this that put money into the hands of people who don't necessarily deserve it.

Foreign Policy:
The 27 states of the EU will never agree upon the same course of action. The UK will want to go to war and France will want to sell cheese to the enemy. It is showing now in the way there is a big rumpus about whether to let Turkey into the EU. Germany especially doesn't want it, as that would mean the numbers of Turkish migrant workers there will rise instead of fall at a time when jobs for Germans is dropping. While on the other hand, some countries are going round shouting "racist! Why shouldn't Turkey be let in?"
If the Lisbon treaty goes ahead, the EU government will take control of the seats in the UN security council that member states own. Just imagine the chaos....

Just Say No. It's worked in the past.

Guess we're screwed then, because it's likely going to be through in a month or two.

Yep. Because they enticed the UK in in the end. Then Margaret Thatcher (a strong right-wing Prime Minister, btw) got us a huge rebate.

But our recent Prime Minister gave most of it away so that the French would in turn reduce the CAP. But they didn't.

In the run up to the release of the new Star Trek movie,Space.com posed the question of whether warp speed is feasible.

The earliest reference to traveling through space appeared in "Somnium," a book published in 1634 by Johannes Kepler, where he describes traveling to the moon via demons.

In these "enlightened" times, we think more of the warp drive, hyperspace and wormholes for our FTL (faster than light) travel. Mainly since Einstein defined his Theory of General Relativity (E=mc^2), which states that as one approaches the speed of light, the mass of the ship becomes infinite. What that means in plain English is that you'd need an infinite thrust to push you past the speed of light.

The latest theory to come about seems to throw out the idea of engines altogether and asks, if you can't move the ship that fast, why not move the space around the ship?

Marc Millis, former head of NASA's Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Project, has stated this idea, based off of physicist Miguel Alcubierre first theory in 1994. And why is it so feasible? Well, it may have already happened.

If we accept the Big Bang theory as fact, then parts of space-time must have been able to travel faster than light to set up their positions today.

"If it could do it for the Big Bang, why not for our space drives?" Millis said.

To do this, scientists would have to create a mass or energy as yet unknown that would to manipulate the space-time that they are in already, roughly how the TARDIS is supposed to work.

There are studies being done towards dark energy and negative energy, but all three of these pose their own problems in harnessing that power.

"We still don't even know if those things are possible or impossible, but at least we've progressed far enough to where there are things that we can actually research to chip away at the unknowns," Millis said. "Even if they turn out to be impossible, by asking these questions, we're likely to discover things that otherwise we might overlook."

Perhaps Zefram Cochrane is already working on such an idea?


Article by escapist magazine's michael grace.


So... will humanity be flying around in huge tardises...? *Sees an enormous smile on Jtull's face* probably not. But they'll probably be using the same drive. *J's smile dies down*

I don't think it is feasible, really. But then people said that about flying.

I think it'll be like the future's flying. Just wait a couple hundred years and they'll probably be flying all over the place with space craft. All they need to do really is either solve the energy problems on the theoretical drives we alredy have or find a new energy for it. But, next year, NASA will start doing some resarch on dark matter and dark energy. They might find something that will solve it.

Article from escapist magazine. Made by Nex Cavall (Yes, that's his real name)

What's scarier than robotic death machines? How about robotic death machines that can leap up stairs and dive through windows?

Dubbed "Urban Hopper," the latest robot to come from SquishBot creator Boston Dynamics can leap up to 8 meters in the air -- perfect for clearing fences, and launching itself into enemy-occupied buildings like some kind of mechanical John Woo extra.

Luckily for the human resistance, the Hopper currently lacks the sort of jumping precision that might doom our entire race. "The existing hoppers do not maintain a stable orientation during hops, but tumble randomly," Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) spokesman Mark Peterson told New Scientist.

Assuming the military's scientists can teach the Hopper to jump where it ought to, the gadget will be used for "urban reconnaissance and intelligence gathering." However, DARPA also notes that the machine could be outfitted with "a raft of weapons."

Picture this: You're sitting at home, reading the collected works of Vladimir Nabokov when you hear a soft, repetitive "ka-thunk" noise from your lawn. You rise from your recliner, walk cautiously to the window and just as you reach for the blinds a 120-pound steel rabbit smashes through the glass.

Stumbling backwards you trip over an unfortunately placed ottoman. Before you can remark on the Dick Van Dyke-ian implications of the tumble, the metallic intruder swivels towards you, offering only a cheerful "click-ping," before it tears your body to pieces with 214 carefully-aimed depleted uranium rounds.

As you lie there, slowly asphyxiating on the blood seeping into your lungs from dozens of ragged puncture wounds, your final thoughts are of Humbert Humbert. "He may be a monster, but all he ever wanted was someone to love him."

Chilling, no?
----------------------------------------------

Could this be the start of a really terrifying mass murdering machine? I'd say yes.

Just give me a trampoline...

Better get training on that trampoline or this pogo stick will have your job

Yes!!!! Finally! UP YOURS creationists! Evolutionism got a big well needed boost by the discovery of a new fossil, scientists might be very close to actually proving the evolution theory. Here's the article from national geographic

may 19, 2009-Meet "Ida," the small "missing link" found in Germany that's created a big media splash and will likely continue to make waves among those who study human origins.

In a new book, documentary, and promotional Web site, paleontologist Jorn Hurum, who led the team that analyzed the 47-million-year-old fossil seen above, suggests Ida is a critical missing-link species in primate evolution (interactive guide to human evolution from National Geographic magazine).

(Among the team members was University of Michigan paleontologist Philip Gingerich, a member of the Committee for Research and Exploration of the National Geographic Society, which owns National Geographic News.)

The fossil, he says, bridges the evolutionary split between higher primates such as monkeys, apes, and humans and their more distant relatives such as lemurs.

"This is the first link to all humans," Hurum, of the Natural History Museum in Oslo, Norway, said in a statement. Ida represents "the closest thing we can get to a direct ancestor."

Ida, properly known as Darwinius masillae, has a unique anatomy. The lemur-like skeleton features primate-like characteristics, including grasping hands, opposable thumbs, clawless digits with nails, and relatively short limbs.

"This specimen looks like a really early fossil monkey that belongs to the group that includes us," said Brian Richmond, a biological anthropologist at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., who was not involved in the study.

But there's a big gap in the fossil record from this time period, Richmond noted. Researchers are unsure when and where the primate group that includes monkeys, apes, and humans split from the other group of primates that includes lemurs.

"[Ida] is one of the important branching points on the evolutionary tree," Richmond said, "but it's not the only branching point."

At least one aspect of Ida is unquestionably unique: her incredible preservation, unheard of in specimens from the Eocene era, when early primates underwent a period of rapid evolution. (Explore a prehistoric time line.)

"From this time period there are very few fossils, and they tend to be an isolated tooth here or maybe a tailbone there," Richmond explained. "So you can't say a whole lot of what that [type of fossil] represents in terms of evolutionary history or biology."

In Ida's case, scientists were able to examine fossil evidence of fur and soft tissue and even picked through the remains of her last meal: fruits, seeds, and leaves.

What's more, the newly described "missing link" was found in Germany's Messel Pit. Ida's European origins are intriguing, Richmond said, because they could suggest-contrary to common assumptions-that the continent was an important area for primate evolution.
source: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/05/090519-missing-link-found.html

1 for science, 0 for ignorance and blind faith!

I hate those people.They just make me want to cry about their sheer stupidity/gullibleness.

I believe that God started off life, just not in the way in the bible.

Life started as very basic organisms/proteins, and I believe God sparked them off.

I constantly find myself debating whether there is a God or there isnt. I could probably debate on the issue for the rest of my life.

An interesting link:

http://www.wellcometreeoflife.org/interactive/

Toa Kaita wrote:I constantly find myself debating whether there is a God or there isnt. I could probably debate on the issue for the rest of my life.

it is so simple, so,so, simple

For a person without a soul.

i think it's rather a person that can think in more than ''oh god is so good because an ancient book told me he is, i mean, books cant lie! at all! never!''

Or people who want something to believe in, i guess religion can make life look a bit brighter...

Yep. Like the Muse song

Thoughts Of A Dying Atheist

ah, religious talk, hm, a lot of your stuff here spawns other questions and thinkings, for instance shem's idea of creation there also sparks another branch of thinking which in turn means how salvation happens. maybe if i have time ill get into it for you

ummm...what idea? and what are you talking about? but the stuff said in the bible and other holy books just doesnt make sense. Think about it really deep and you'll understand

and if you think about it really deep, you'll understand

ok, well you may not understand, that's what teachers and preachers and the like are for, now if they actually do their jobs correctky for once, then maybe people will understand...

just...nevermind. You keep believing there's some guy up there who for some reason decided to create us and knows everything and i'll keep believing he's something someone made up. There's no way a debate will change anyone's opinion of god anyways

well, it could, actually it has on several occasions i do believe

well, maybe later i'll ask some basic questions to you thingy, see how you respond and then i'll respond, it's a neat exercise really

maybe, but those werent really 100% atheistic, they probably just decided ''nah, he doesnt exist'' without any deep thinking. I've thought about it deep, and nothing is going to make me believe some guy who loves us, but created evil and suffering, is floating around somewhere looking at us.

@alka i didnt say i could. But you cant prove that there isnt another dimension where everyone is a living piece of candy and they all eat living hot dogs with their necks


the bottom line is, i'll respect that you believe in god and i wont try to convert you, you can try to convert me but you'll fail and yes, i cant prove that he doesnt exist, but i can say a whole bunch of nonsense and you cant prove it doesnt exist.