Re: Lost Identity by TLRufener	Niphredil 192.114.81.70	17-Dec-05/6:12 AM
I find the rhythm a little bit stilted. The well-defined rhythm of these four lines: "I’ve read this before, Time and again; But I can’t seem to find Where this nightmare ends." doesn't quite seem to match the rather asymmetric last line of "I have lost myself To a savage beast. I can’t run fast enough To escape their carnivorous feast." A little fixing-up would make the poem flow more smoothly, in my opinion.
Re: a comment on Bri's Room (not done) by Sunshine Conkey	Niphredil 192.114.81.70	17-Dec-05/6:07 AM
Incidentally (sorry for changing the subject), you say, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for today, and he shows up to be fed again tomorrow, resenting you because he needs you. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime, and he goes away your friend. " Isn't this a contradiction to your claim that people shouldn't be over-educated? I want to educate all the people so that they have the tools to support themselves and their families, i.e, learn to fish. You say, "don't bother, they're not intelligent enough, and they will only harm themselves." I can't help seeing a glaring contradiction here, sorry.
Re: a comment on CHRISTMAS EVERYDAY by amanda_dcosta	-=Dark_Angel=-, P.I. 81.151.150.39	17-Dec-05/2:19 AM
If you knew anything about monotheism, or indeed Biblical scripture, you'd realise that the incarnation known as JESUS died long ago. Following His death He returned to the MOTHERSHIP, where He instructed the Angel known only as JOHN CONNOR to lower His quivering body into a vat of spiritual lava (He being incapable of self-termination.) Once LIQUIDATED, His essence joined forces with the FATHER and the HOLY GHOST forming the single most powerful entity in the Universe: MEGAZORD http://tinyurl.com/9auyb
Re: a comment on Blah Blah by Blindpoetry	Blindpoetry 70.172.225.193	16-Dec-05/9:21 PM
no, it's blah. And then something about your mother. duh?
Re: a comment on Blah Blah by Blindpoetry	Blindpoetry 70.172.225.193	16-Dec-05/9:21 PM
got anything else? got anything else?? GOT ANYTHING ELSE?!?! ...yeah. just look at the million other poems I have. Yeah, that's something else.
Re: a comment on Privacy by Dovina	ALChemy 24.74.101.159	16-Dec-05/7:50 PM
I'm watching youuuuuu. :))
Re: a comment on CHRISTMAS EVERYDAY by amanda_dcosta	amanda_dcosta 203.145.159.37	16-Dec-05/6:59 PM
Not you definitely!
Re: a comment on CHRISTMAS EVERYDAY by amanda_dcosta	amanda_dcosta 203.145.159.37	16-Dec-05/6:57 PM
And i suppose you're the one who supplied him his false beard.....You have an occupation, -=D_A=-. Not all of us have been priviledged. Lucky You.
Re: a comment on CHRISTMAS EVERYDAY by amanda_dcosta	amanda_dcosta 203.145.159.37	16-Dec-05/6:51 PM
Ha ha ha...... you don't scare me buddy boy! Good try! And correction, HE IS NOT HUMAN, HE IS NOT OF THIS EARTH. He is where we strive to reach......the essence of this entire life....for life.
Re: a comment on I love to see the sunrise by amanda_dcosta	amanda_dcosta 203.145.159.37	16-Dec-05/6:45 PM
Dovina , wilco.....hmmmm, yep, i agree that 'remorse and helping hand' is a bit dry. And for the opening phrase, the reason is found in lines 3,4 of verse 1. or is that also vague?
Re: Privacy by Dovina	zodiac 69.132.67.140	16-Dec-05/5:56 PM
YOUR GIFT: Scientists Find A DNA Change That Accounts For White Skin By Rick Weiss Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, December 16, 2005; Page A01 Scientists said yesterday that they have discovered a tiny genetic mutation that largely explains the first appearance of white skin in humans tens of thousands of years ago, a finding that helps solve one of biology's most enduring mysteries and illuminates one of humanity's greatest sources of strife. The work suggests that the skin-whitening mutation occurred by chance in a single individual after the first human exodus from Africa, when all people were brown-skinned. That person's offspring apparently thrived as humans moved northward into what is now Europe, helping to give rise to the lightest of the world's races. Leaders of the study, at Penn State University, warned against interpreting the finding as a discovery of "the race gene." Race is a vaguely defined biological, social and political concept, they noted, and skin color is only part of what race is -- and is not. In fact, several scientists said, the new work shows just how small a biological difference is reflected by skin color. The newly found mutation involves a change of just one letter of DNA code out of the 3.1 billion letters in the human genome -- the complete instructions for making a human being. "It's a major finding in a very sensitive area," said Stephen Oppenheimer, an expert in anthropological genetics at Oxford University, who was not involved in the work. "Almost all the differences used to differentiate populations from around the world really are skin deep." The work raises a raft of new questions -- not least of which is why white skin caught on so thoroughly in northern climes once it arose. Some scientists suggest that lighter skin offered a strong survival advantage for people who migrated out of Africa by boosting their levels of bone-strengthening vitamin D; others have posited that its novelty and showiness simply made it more attractive to those seeking mates. The work also reveals for the first time that Asians owe their relatively light skin to different mutations. That means that light skin arose independently at least twice in human evolution, in each case affecting populations with the facial and other traits that today are commonly regarded as the hallmarks of Caucasian and Asian races. Several sociologists and others said they feared that such revelations might wrongly overshadow the prevailing finding of genetics over the past 10 years: that the number of DNA differences between races is tiny compared with the range of genetic diversity found within any single racial group. Even study leader Keith Cheng said he was at first uncomfortable talking about the new work, fearing that the finding of such a clear genetic difference between people of African and European ancestries might reawaken discredited assertions of other purported inborn differences between races -- the most long-standing and inflammatory of those being intelligence. "I think human beings are extremely insecure and look to visual cues of sameness to feel better, and people will do bad things to people who look different," Cheng said. The discovery, described in today's issue of the journal Science, was an unexpected outgrowth of studies Cheng and his colleagues were conducting on inch-long zebra fish, which are popular research tools for geneticists and developmental biologists. Having identified a gene that, when mutated, interferes with its ability to make its characteristic black stripes, the team scanned human DNA databases to see if a similar gene resides in people. To their surprise, they found virtually identical pigment-building genes in humans, chickens, dogs, cows and many others species, an indication of its biological value. They got a bigger surprise when they looked in a new database comparing the genomes of four of the world's major racial groups. That showed that whites with northern and western European ancestry have a mutated version of the gene. Skin color is a reflection of the amount and distribution of the pigment melanin, which in humans protects against damaging ultraviolet rays but in other species is also used for camouflage or other purposes. The mutation that deprives zebra fish of their stripes blocks the creation of a protein whose job is to move charged atoms across cell membranes, an obscure process that is crucial to the accumulation of melanin inside cells. Humans of European descent, Cheng's team found, bear a slightly different mutation that hobbles the same protein with similar effect. The defect does not affect melanin deposition in other parts of the body, including the hair and eyes, whose tints are under the control of other genes. A few genes have previously been associated with human pigment disorders -- most notably those that, when mutated, lead to albinism, an extreme form of pigment loss. But the newly found glitch is the first found to play a role in the formation of "normal" white skin. The Penn State team calculates that the gene, known as slc24a5, is responsible for about one-third of the pigment loss that made black skin white. A few other as-yet-unidentified mutated genes apparently account for the rest. Although precise dating is impossible, several scientists speculated on the basis of its spread and variation that the mutation arose between 20,000 and 50,000 years ago. That would be consistent with research showing that a wave of ancestral humans migrated northward and eastward out of Africa about 50,000 years ago. Unlike most mutations, this one quickly overwhelmed its ancestral version, at least in Europe, suggesting it had a real benefit. Many scientists suspect that benefit has to do with vitamin D, made in the body with the help of sunlight and critical to proper bone development. Sun intensity is great enough in equatorial regions that the vitamin can still be made in dark-skinned people despite the ultraviolet shielding effects of melanin. In the north, where sunlight is less intense and cold weather demands that more clothing be worn, melanin's ultraviolet shielding became a liability, the thinking goes. Today that solar requirement is largely irrelevant because many foods are supplemented with vitamin D. Some scientists said they suspect that white skin's rapid rise to genetic dominance may also be the product of "sexual selection," a phenomenon of evolutionary biology in which almost any new and showy trait in a healthy individual can become highly prized by those seeking mates, perhaps because it provides evidence of genetic innovativeness. Cheng and co-worker Victor A. Canfield said their discovery could have practical spinoffs. A gene so crucial to the buildup of melanin in the skin might be a good target for new drugs against melanoma, for example, a cancer of melanin cells in which slc24a5 works overtime. But they and others agreed that, for better or worse, the finding's most immediate impact may be an escalating debate about the meaning of race. Recent revelations that all people are more than 99.9 percent genetically identical has proved that race has almost no biological validity. Yet geneticists' claims that race is a phony construct have not rung true to many nonscientists -- and understandably so, said Vivian Ota Wang of the National Human Genome Research Institute in Bethesda. "You may tell people that race isn't real and doesn't matter, but they can't catch a cab," Ota Wang said. "So unless we take that into account it makes us sound crazy."
Re: a comment on You Have It Backwards by LilMsLadyPoet	zodiac 69.132.67.140	16-Dec-05/5:50 PM
"It's a myth to think I don't know what's going on. It's a myth to think that I'm not aware that there's opinions that don't agree with mine, because I'm fully aware of that." —George W. Bush Philadelphia, PA Dec 12, 2005
Re: a comment on Bri's Room (not done) by Sunshine Conkey	zodiac 69.132.67.140	16-Dec-05/5:04 PM
Yeah, but it seems like she thinks if you're great you've got to have a factory and a penthouse office somewhere. Excuse me if I don't go in for that game.
Re: a comment on Lost Identity by TLRufener	TLRufener 140.146.216.76	16-Dec-05/4:55 PM
I wrote this poem about a year ago to a magazine editor that was trying to change my style to what they wanted. This can be directed at you, if you wish it, or it can be directed to any critic in the literary world.
Re: a comment on Bri's Room (not done) by Sunshine Conkey	LilMsLadyPoet 207.69.139.10	16-Dec-05/4:26 PM
I love Ayn Rand, and daresay I've read more of her, and more thoroughly, than you have. But I've come to see most of her ideas as kinda silly and simplistic, or at the very best limited to an antiquated "captains of industry" view of things. Okay, you said her IDEAS were simplistic. I stand corrected. ( I made the assumption one would think her simplistic, if her ideas were seen as simplistic.) and continuing off topic...yes, I agree that she did not value non-industrialists as much as I would have liked her to. She did give value to the 'little' things people do, in Atlas Shrugged, when the great characters grew food,etc. in their hidden place.
Re: a comment on Bri's Room (not done) by Sunshine Conkey	zodiac 69.132.67.140	16-Dec-05/4:24 PM
You're still not getting it. If I said, thousands of studies prove the average dog is brown, you'd answer, I've seen two white dogs myself. I'm glad this conversation's over. I haven't heard you say anything except what you WISH was true. As all those things are what I wish was true, too, I don't feel that I've learned anything new.
Re: a comment on Bri's Room (not done) by Sunshine Conkey	zodiac 69.132.67.140	16-Dec-05/4:20 PM
Yes, of course. Except it's PROVEN that more academically gifted students are "identified" more often in better-off classrooms, and special needs students are "identified" more often in poorer classrooms. Trust me. My wife is a nationally-known expert in special education. [Ms zodiac: Oh, yes, that's right.] Yes, there are thousands of stories about poor children exceeding their circumstances. NO ONE HAS SAID THIS IS NOT THE CASE. THE CASE IS THAT FOR EVERY DISADVANTAGED STUDENT WHO'S "ACADEMICALLY GIFTED", THREE ADVANTAGED STUDENTS ARE. You cannot disprove that. So, to make sure we're on the same page: 1) Many poor people have high IQs. 2) Many rich people have low IQs. 3) You don't understand what averages mean. 4) You cannot "find a study somewhere" to support any given assumption. For example, YOU, LilMsLadyPoet, cannot find a study to support your assumptions. QED. One assumption you should try finding a study to support is the assumption, "If you start with an assumption, then you can find a study somewhere to support your statement." Good luck.
Re: a comment on Bri's Room (not done) by Sunshine Conkey	LilMsLadyPoet 207.69.139.10	16-Dec-05/4:20 PM
And no amount of your "It's obvious I've been talking about the very best knowledge on the subject..." can refute what I see with my own eyes. If you stated there were a thousand studies stating that dogs don't exist, should that make anyone disbelieve their own eyes? I have seen what I have seen. I have seen, with my own eyes, what others have seen and pointed out to me. I will never let 'education' deny what my own intelligence shows me. And I believe in looking at things people state as fact, weighing what I know about the subject, exploring it further if there is a discrepancy, and coming to my own conclusion based on the facts I gather. I submit this is an intelligent manner with which to educate ones self. I am done with this conversation.
Re: a comment on Bri's Room (not done) by Sunshine Conkey	zodiac 69.132.67.140	16-Dec-05/4:07 PM
Oh. Forgive me for trying to place that quote in the context of a discussion on socialism, when you were apparently just talking at random. You can see how I made that mistake: 1. American democracy is moving from idealism. 2. It's moving closer to socialism. 3. Money buys power and presidents. 4. People think democracy means owing people handouts. 5. But it doesn't. 6. Corrupt [and bought] government takes your property to give it as handouts. 7. But that's socialism. Is this not the gist of your aboveposted comment? PS-This is all very swell for one apparently raised on welfare.
Re: a comment on Bri's Room (not done) by Sunshine Conkey	LilMsLadyPoet 207.69.139.10	16-Dec-05/4:05 PM
Academically and intellectually gifted children are identified throughout student populations, among the poor and uneducated, and from homes where the parents are illiterate. This I know to be a fact. I have been involved in gathering stories of children that far exceed their circumstances. An AIG teacher and services coordinator identified a pocket of AIG children, within rural NC, who were African-American, many performing below grade level, and from homes far below the poverty level. Every study you seem to believe would counter the situation I just stated. I believe that it is not a matter of high intelligence not existing in the population. I think that the problem lies in the fact that no one is really looking! I have personally seen SO many situations and people that go against what you state. Have I (and others) been, seemingly against all odds, finding high IQ’s among the poor? Do we identify those who somehow beat the ‘odds’, ‘averages’, and ‘findings of studies’? If you start with an assumption, then you can find a study somewhere to support your statement.