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Almost EVERYONE can relate to these movies because you can envision yourself as hobbits/wizards/kings against the Dark Lord (USA/terrorists/muslims/Bush).

Personally, it's me vs Sauron!

You're all bitchin' and whinin' about the MPAA, while Patriot and Country Singer Glen Campbell, who wrote such hits as "By The Time I Get To Phoenix," "Wichita Lineman" and "Rhinestone Cowboy", has been arrested by the fascist Phoenix police after "allegedly" running his car drunkenly into another car, "allegedly" kneeing a police officer and other trumped up charges.

I implore you all to contact Governor Napolitano to ask for clemency in this case. You can contact him here http://www.governor.state.az.us/post/feedback.asp [state.az.us] (not a goatse link)

This injustice must NOT be allowed to happen. We need more hits Glen - something to fight back against the Britney Spears/50 Cent/yada-yada-yada SHIT thats being mass produced by our good friends the RIAA and forced down the throats of America's youth, turning them into God-hatin', Terrorist Lovin', Communists!

Sorry, you've missed the (slightly obscure) reference.

Mind you- this is a 5 minute walk from DOWNTOWN FINANCIAL CENTER in Boston. Not the boondocks.

That actually makes it MORE expensive. In the heart of an old, dense, poorly-planned city, the effort required to install any new cable is orders of magnitude bigger than just ripping through an empty field in a backhoe. And being in the financial district meant that all the other people inconvenienced by the work are high-wage broker-types whose time is expensive to waste. (Meaning the city will soak you on all the permits and police overtime)

Maybe, Boston is actually the worst US city for additional expense to infrastructure projects- big or small. The extreme example is how they just built $400,000,000 worth of tunnel for $10,800,000,000 (a 27x multiplier) because of all the uninterruptable activity above the dig site.

If you want cheap fiber to your building, try someplace more amenable, like Chicago.

Right now, I live out in the burbs near boston. 30 minutes away. I have ONE choice in internet access save dialup.

I've got relatives living in such areas (128 region), and they've got two cable companies selling ISP service. The effective speeds to in-state resources are an impressive 300Kb/s.

OK, so you wouldn't want to work with Einstein or Isaac Newton. Their personalities exactly match your description "they can't communicate effectively or deal with other people". The article talks about how these traits are common to those with Asperger's Syndrome, which you said earlier doesn't exist.

I think you have now revealed yourself to be a lurking PHB, spying on those who have a clue. You'd exclude from your company the most brilliant minds, and keep only the most conformist.

No, those guys may have had antisocial "mental disorders" that some /.ers think don't exist.
About.com

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/cmosfaq /cmosfaq.OneSpaceorTwo.html
http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/taylor/topics/doublesp ace.htm
http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/typespacing/a/onetw ospaces.htm
http://www.webword.com/reports/period.html
http://www.getitwriteonline.com/archive/011803.htm

Both the MLA and Chicago Manual of Style suggest one space after punctuation while using a compensatory font (ie, not-monospaced). Two spaces after a period is very out of style. Yeah I know - shocked the hell out of me when I learned it a couple years ago too.

You started by asserting that atheism is a religion. This assertion was rebutted so you moved on to claim that although atheism is not "technically" a religion it should be classified as one.

No. I re-stated my position that, even though most dictionary definitions of "religion" specifically mention divinity, it is nevertheless proper to consider atheism "a religion." Specifically, I have maintained that public entities should treat Atheism the same as Christianity or Judaism or Wicca or Islam, and I have provided instances and practical applications wherein it is useful to answer questions such as "what is your religion?" with "atheist."

You gave a reason to back up this assertion but it was rebutted. You failed to respond to that rebuttal and failed to provide any additional reasons.

Kindly refresh my memory as to what you consider your last rebuttal to be.

If you are referring to my supplied context as to when it is and is not proper to consider "atheism" a "religion", your rebuttal was little more than a repetition of your previous allegation that "atheism is not a religion".

I did a small bit of cursory research, and found a summary of a Supreme Court case, ESA v. Rylander, in which the court found that "religion" should be interpreted very broadly when it comes to the law--and, ergo, my contexts wherein "atheism must be considered a religion."

I believe that I should add a fourth and fifth context wherein atheism must be considered a religion: Whenever discussing the religious beliefs of a population or the workings of religion in public life; and Whenever civil servants are compelled to self-censor their religion.

As it stands now you have no argument that atheism should be classified as a religion, which I speculate explains your desire to drop that part (the main part) of the discussion.

Not so. I merely felt that the argument had reached and intractable deadlock, and simply chose to focus on other, more negotiable avenues of discussion. Hence, by current subdividing of this topic into several managable sub-threads.

I was in Utah on business and the strongest beer you can get at most stores and bars is 3.2%, almost half what normal beers have. Utah has some tough liquor laws but at least it's not a "dry" state.

OK I'm just jealous of the cheap high speed access and I will feel better by drinking a 12% Imperial Stout.

If you trust its reporting, you can see that its main two cash cows are sliding and more and more is spent on marketing. I'd speculate that even some of the non-marketing line items include activities that other companies would consider marketing.

Keep in mind that other hype engines, Worldcom, Enron, Tyco, to name a few, also showed nice profits -- until their books got a proper going over. Given that it's a company found guilty of illegal anti-comptetitive activities and during the trial video testimony was forged and several contradictions in executive testimonies leave a suspicion of perjury and there is a history of cooking the books to hide an $18 billion loss, I'd be suspicious of any self-reported figures. But, hey, it's your money.

Even if the oft-cited-but-still-unseen money in the bank is real, it could disappear in security penalties, false advertising fines or anti-trust action. $1 trillion is a lot larger than $50 billion. Or, even if it is real and does not disappear in fines, then it could be used up trying to get vapourware such as .not and leghorn to market by 2006. Three years is too long for businesses to suffer with tools that are not ready for the Internet when most have enterprise level drop-in GNU/Linux, BSD, or Mac OS X replacements which are Internet ready now.

Once national investments and the larger funds have divested, there won't be any pretense to pretend that the company is viable.

Favorite line from the article: "It is much harder to fool people with a website." If only that were true.

oh my god, I foudn the answer in 20 seconds on google... not even newsgroups
http://email.about.com/cs/macosxmailtips/a/et01270 3.htm
since when is slashdot "I'm too lazy to use GOOGLE" tech support. goddammit.

Microsoft software has nothing to do with DDoS. DDoS cannot by stopped except by cutting off the source.

DDOS attacks are usually launched through Windows boxes that have been exploited, for example by worms such as SOBIG.

Here's a bit more regarding ITunes and patents. Even "double click" is considered an invention and was issued a U.S. patent. It doesn't matter if you don't agree. One of the reasons for computers rapid growth is that no one had a patent on them as the court ruled Dr. Atanasoff was clearly the inventor and he claimed no patent.

So whatever happened to the phone-card phone discussed here?

the tv was invented in by a scottish man look, as were most things, telephones (bell was a scot), James Clerk Maxwell, he gave einstein his ideas, The inventor of anaesthesia, James Young Simpson was born in Edinburgh in 1811. Radar was patented in April 1935 following a report written for a government committee studying the air defense of Great Britain. Working with his assistant, Arnold Wilkins, Watson-Watt developed the first radar, which was tested in February 1935 using a BBC short-wave aerial. Radar was patented in the following April. James Watt, heard of him Dewar was the Scottish inventor that came up with the idea of a thermos flask The pneumatic tyre has allowed the development of many of our modern transportation. Without it, a car journey would be a bumpy ride! Credit to its development goes to the veterinary surgeon John Boyd Dunlop. all these ppl are scottish. (anyway, the tv is a scottish invention by a scottish man)

I'm not sure Nobel would have had much to say about TNT...

It is believed that the tradition of Halloween reached America with the Irish immigrants of the 19th century who, according to Barkin and James, retained the belief that ghosts and spirits roamed the earth on Halloween. It is even possible that it was the Irish that developed the idea of trick or treating when villagers would go begging for food for a feast or perhaps the festival of St. Columb Kill.

Why do you think Java is ill-suited for rule processing?

I didn't say that, but your statement is true: Java is ill-suited for rule-processing because there is no question that it cannot compete with languages designed for that purpose. Its a matter of what a language is suited for:

1. Java was designed to control appliances and hardware devices, failed there,
2. Java was remarketed to WWW browsers, failed there,
3. Java was remarketed to WWW servers, where it now is barely holding off a competitor that charges $$ for it's products.

So as a language, Java has a rather checkered history. It has found a niche (WWW servers) and is finally doing well there, but it has been a long, bumpy ride for old Java programmers (see the Official Unofficial Java History for details.)

In contrast, Lisp and Prolog were designed as symbolic manipulation languages and do that exceedingly well.

But my main point was "why would one perform a task in Java that can be more easily, more quickly and more cost-effectively done in a readily-available language designed for the task?"

Technically everything north of (and including) Panama is in North America: USA, Canada, and Mexico being the largest by area. Here's some maps of North America, which lists 25 countries, most of which are island nations.

In surface area (which is what matters in telecom), the continent of Europe is est. 3,837,000 Sq. Miles (9,938,000 Sq. Km) vs North America at 9,365,000 Sq. Miles (24,256,000 Sq. Km). The United States alone comes out to 3,537,438 Sq. Miles.

Why, I never!

"How does the old saying go?

Well, let's ask the President of the United States.

"There's an old saying in Tennessee - I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee - that says, fool me once, shame on - shame on you. Fool me - you can't get fooled again." [video available here]

Thanks Mr. President!

Discovery/TLC once had two BBC series dedicated to exactly this purpose called Connections and Connections 2 by James Burke. It demonstrated that most everything you count as normal was discovered by just this method: seeking one outcome, failing, and using the failure for something new. Cereal, air conditioning, rocketry, take your pick. Think Edison didn't use all those failures? That's one step above research, that's creative research.

Discovery/TLC once had two BBC series dedicated to exactly this purpose called Connections and Connections 2 by James Burke. It demonstrated that most everything you count as normal was discovered by just this method: seeking one outcome, failing, and using the failure for something new. Cereal, air conditioning, rocketry, take your pick. Think Edison didn't use all those failures? That's one step above research, that's creative research.

What, EXACTLY, are benefits the "rich" are getting that poor people aren't? And while you're at it, define "rich".

Okay, how about 87B of our tax dollars for awarding contracts without bidding to companies the administration has ties to, while most states are cutting back on educational programs for kids not rich enough to attend private schools.

This guy is a democrats dream come true

You mean the guy that suggests the way to prevent forest fires is by selling all the timber to his buddies in the timber industry? The guy that invaded two countries while cutting health care benefits for war veterans? The guy that 71% of Europeans think is the biggest threat to world peace and stability?

Full list of accomplishments here.

Bush Jr. has done more for this country than Clinton ever did

I'll admit he's done more to this country. In fact, I'd say he's done more harm to this country than even Nixon did. At least Nixon could handle international issues with diplomacy.

1. Afghanistan, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003
2. Bosnia, 1994, 1995
3. Cambodia, 1969-70
4. China, 1945-46
5. Congo (now Zaire), 1964
6. Cuba, 1959-1961 ("Bay of Pigs" invasion)
7. El Salvador, 1980s
8. Grenada, 1983
9. Guatemala, 1954, 1960, 1967-69
10. Indonesia, 1958
11. Iran, 1987
12. Iraq, 1991-2000, 2003 (The U.S. government used radioactive bombs in the first war against Iraq. See United States War Crimes Against Iraq for what appears to be an accurate history.)
13. Korea and China, 1950-53 (Korean War)
14. Kuwait, 1991
15. Laos, 1964-73
16. Lebanon, 1983, 1984 (both Lebanese and Syrian targets)
17. Libya, 1986
18. Nicaragua, 1980s
19. Panama, 1989. The U.S. government called it "Operation Just Cause". The link is to a U.S. military web site.
20. Peru, 1965
21. Somalia, 1993
22. Sudan 1998. There are doubts

My point is while there is certainly nice tolerance it is a facade to some degree. Ask immigrants how they feel, the warm welcome that the Turkish and Marocans receive in Dutch society.

Well, my African-American friends say much the same things about the USA, only they aren't recent immigrants but have been there for several generations.

Turks and Marocans aren't very likely to be gunned down in their homes, or have a broomstick jammed up their arses by arresting police officers in the Netherlands either. Are these typical? Of course not, but such incidents do happen with a disturbing regularity in the USA and I can't recall ever hearing of such events in the Netherlands.

Tolerance just to ideas is also lacking. Try critizing the Dutch government in front of them, they'll either 1) tell you how broken American government is in response or 2) tell you you're clueless because you don't know how brilliant the Dutch system is.

Yeah, I think that's right. However, in my experience, they're far less strident than the United States in their defence of 'my country right or wrong', and I can perfectly understand their unwillingness to be lectured on how they should run their government from an American. I certainly don't have the sense that the only way to achieve high political office in the Netherlands is by being in thrall to vested interests. In reference to Rush Limbaugh or Pat Buchanan, did you not hear about Pim Fortuin? He wasn't as hateful as good ole Rush or Pat, but he was pretty radical in views

I don't think Fortuin was comparable for a moment -- and if anything, Fortuin is a pretty good counter-example to the things that you're saying.

Firstly, he was gay. Can you even begin to contemplate a gay Jesse Helms?

Secondly, he was critical of the existing Dutch system -- and gained an immense amount of support from the population for expressing what were effectively heretical views that broke with the longstanding liberal consensus.

Finally, Fortuin wasn't opposed to immigrants simply because they were different -- inferior mongrel races -- but rather, was concerned about the impact that immigrants from certain other cultures were having on the Dutch way of life -- and most particularly, those enlightenment values of tolerance, equality, etc. that the Netherlands has worked so hard to enshrine.

This isn't an issue that's ever likely to arise in the USA because you insist that every immigrant pledge allegiance to the flag, motherhood and apple pie before they ever get citizenship, and the moment you begin to even start perceiving them as a potential threat you start locking them up or expelling them, regardless of the evidence against them.

Don't get me wrong. The USA has many great qualities and I love the place as much -- perhaps even more -- than I love the Netherlands. But freedom and tolerance just aren't the first things that spring to mind when I think about the place and I often have to struggle to reconcile the good things I like about the political system there (such as the very spirited defence of freedoms of speech and expression, the constitution, etc.) with the reality of how that system actually operates.

My point is while there is certainly nice tolerance it is a facade to some degree. Ask immigrants how they feel, the warm welcome that the Turkish and Marocans receive in Dutch society.

Well, my African-American friends say much the same things about the USA, only they aren't recent immigrants but have been there for several generations.

Turks and Marocans aren't very likely to be gunned down in their homes, or have a broomstick jammed up their arses by arresting police officers in the Netherlands either. Are these typical? Of course not, but such incidents do happen with a disturbing regularity in the USA and I can't recall ever hearing of such events in the Netherlands.

Tolerance just to ideas is also lacking. Try critizing the Dutch government in front of them, they'll either 1) tell you how broken American government is in response or 2) tell you you're clueless because you don't know how brilliant the Dutch system is.

Yeah, I think that's right. However, in my experience, they're far less strident than the United States in their defence of 'my country right or wrong', and I can perfectly understand their unwillingness to be lectured on how they should run their government from an American. I certainly don't have the sense that the only way to achieve high political office in the Netherlands is by being in thrall to vested interests. In reference to Rush Limbaugh or Pat Buchanan, did you not hear about Pim Fortuin? He wasn't as hateful as good ole Rush or Pat, but he was pretty radical in views

I don't think Fortuin was comparable for a moment -- and if anything, Fortuin is a pretty good counter-example to the things that you're saying.

Firstly, he was gay. Can you even begin to contemplate a gay Jesse Helms?

Secondly, he was critical of the existing Dutch system -- and gained an immense amount of support from the population for expressing what were effectively heretical views that broke with the longstanding liberal consensus.

Finally, Fortuin wasn't opposed to immigrants simply because they were different -- inferior mongrel races -- but rather, was concerned about the impact that immigrants from certain other cultures were having on the Dutch way of life -- and most particularly, those enlightenment values of tolerance, equality, etc. that the Netherlands has worked so hard to enshrine.

This isn't an issue that's ever likely to arise in the USA because you insist that every immigrant pledge allegiance to the flag, motherhood and apple pie before they ever get citizenship, and the moment you begin to even start perceiving them as a potential threat you start locking them up or expelling them, regardless of the evidence against them.

Don't get me wrong. The USA has many great qualities and I love the place as much -- perhaps even more -- than I love the Netherlands. But freedom and tolerance just aren't the first things that spring to mind when I think about the place and I often have to struggle to reconcile the good things I like about the political system there (such as the very spirited defence of freedoms of speech and expression, the constitution, etc.) with the reality of how that system actually operates.

"Any member of the armed forces who, without authority--
(1) fails to go to his appointed place of duty at the time prescribed;

(2) goes from that place; or

(3) absents himself or remains absent from his unit, organization, or place of duty at which he is required to be at the time prescribed; shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.

(snip)

(2) Absence from unit, organization, or other place of duty.

(a) For not more than 3 days. Confinement for 1 month and forfeiture of two-thirds pay per month for 1 month.

(b) For more than 3 days but not more than 30 days. Confinement for 6 months and forfeiture of two-thirds pay per month for 6months.

(c) For more than 30 days. Dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and confinement for 1 year.

(d) For more than 30 days and terminated by apprehension. Dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and confinement for 18 months.

http://urbanlegends.about.com/b/a/033774.htm

"possibly to prevent people from finding changes to past statements and information when archived elsewhere."

Yeah, that's not a baseless accusation at all...

It isn't so much an accusation, it sounds more like they were just unpacking their Reynolds Wrap

If we stayed as healthy as 25-44yos in 1995 (190 deaths/100,000), we'd have a median lifespan of about 360 odd years. Which is still a pretty good run. I suspect we'd be more careful, and knock that rate down a bit as well. But, yeah, even extending old-age longevity to millenia we'll still run into other limits right quick.

I'd take a measly extra 200 years, though.

Actually Ladislo Biro in 1938, check it out at Inventors.com

Ben Franklin was a good businessman and PR man. So he is the one known as the inventor, when in fact TJ probably invented at least as many items as Ben Franklin did. Since Ben Franklin was the shrewd businessman-type, and Thomas Jefferson was the always-losing-money-on-every-business-he-tried type (and his businesses were often based on the newest and latest technologies), you'd think Ben would be more likely to come up with patent, trademark, and copyright laws than TJ would.

TJ created the patent system that was the basis for the patent system in place today, even though he disliked the idea of patents in general. He felt that patents could cause there to be an unfair monopolies.

So he never patented any of his inventions.

Is there anybody here who's having difficulty using google or dealtime?
I mean, this is RIGHT UP THERE too...
About.com YOPY 3700 review

If you are having trouble and are still relying on Sir Haxalot for clickage, for a mere $10.00 plus ($250 S/H) I will send you a beautifully embossed 7 CD portofolio to will instruct you, STEP BY STEP, on how to use Google and the Internet in general. Satisifaction guaranteed!

and if you read Physics.about.com - Generating Electricity with Flowing Water you'll see that the most recent power generation discovery was when Bequerel invented the solar cell (or at least discovered the effect thereof in 1839 - einstein worked out the physics).

For the record, most structural engineers who work on very tall buildings (yes, I'm one) tend to take the view that its habitable space that matters - but having said that some large spires are accessible with observation decks and whatever so these would probably count too. There's a fair bit of difference in the amount of engineering effort required for these than for some carbon fibre mast stuck on top for bragging rights.

Wikipedia

talkorigins (one of many)

geology.about.com

Depending on how recent the source and who you talk to, Coelacanth is a name belonging to either a genus or a family, not just one species. There are ~125 species identified from fossils alone, which are used as index fossils; this is not a problem since they are morphologically distinct from each other and the modern coelacanth species.

Abiogenesis has moved on in the 50 years since Miller-Urey. Might I suggest reading a recent article: "On the origins of cells: a hypothesis for the evolutionary transitions from abiotic geochemistry to chemoautotrophic prokaryotes, and from prokaryotes to nucleated cells," it can be found here, just click journals, then Vol 358, January, then pg 59, freely available in .pdf or .svg format. I'd give the link there directly, but the Royal Society doesn't do that for some reason. Anyway, the article and the references contained therein might get one up to speed. A more tractable account of modern abiogenesis research is available on talkorigins' own website as well.

We just stole it back.

Sorry... wrong link.

Here's the real link killing the rumor:
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blsux.htm

Here's another showing the original untouched photograph

Please let the rumor die...
Please let the rumor die...
Etc.

Davak

Basic is from 1963
C was developed in the early 70's.

For fucks sake! your president talks about god all the time and half his voters and party think hes gods gift, do you not think this slightly more of an issue? Do you not think he might have a slight vested interest or biased opinion leading to violation of the bill of rights? Does this mean that if the court decides that 'under god' shouldnt be there then Bush should go? well i can
kill the suspense now and tell you that the mostly-friends-of-bush supreme court will be deciding in favour of god.

George Bush states that atheists are not citizens or patriots

Bush puts God on his side

George Bush Invites God to School

America Attacked Iraq, Because God Told George Bush To

President George "W" Bush: God's Man for This Hour

Is George W. Bush God?s President?

Bush announces war with plea for God's blessing

But Skittles might be a little more accessible than Krusty's Non Narkotik Kough Syrup For Kids

"and... velcro ... trace their way back to the Space Race of the 1960s."

Velcro was patented in 1955.
The Invention of VELCRO (R) - George de Mestral


"two taikonauts wondering whether to take down the American flag still found at the Sea of Tranquility"

The SoT flag was placed too close to the lunar module and according to Buzz Aldrin was blasted over on their departure. The other 5 flags were placed farther away from the LM and are almost certainly still upright though.
Group Wants to Protect Apollo Site

...after which this is kind of like asking "Other than that, Mrs Lincoln, how was the play?"

He did actually invent MRI; Paul Lauterbur made a refinement in imaging technique and Peter Mansfield made improvements to the analysis of the raw data, so the absence of his name is indeed singular. More so because Damadian actually built the first working scanner, holds the patent on MRI (and 39 other patents too), and built the first commercial MRI scanner.

Perhaps even more striking and demonstrating that he was no flash in the pan, Damadian's company (FONAR) currently builds the most advanced MRI scanners available including a full 360-degree scanner with enough room in it for a full medical team (presumably using plastic and ceramic instruments).

So, yeah, you'd have to figure that something underhanded was going on.

Would they have ever got anywhere with this in court ?

I doubt it, as it as the keyboard shortcut is common knowledge.

For example, it's been posted here for a long time
http://familyinternet.about.com/library/weekly/aa1 10902a.htm

Hey, better yet, let's combine it with the "809" Telephone Scam. People on that list are going to assume any business call left on their machine is legitimate - OR else be calling to get the ID of the company so they can sue. They'd make millions. (look here for info on the basic scam)

If China decides to go into space the way they went to sea in the 1400's (64 ships, some *huge*, 28,000 men!) this could be very interesting indeed, see article.

Are you sure it's not been mentioned anywhere?

I think it has...

Mark

(I don't care if I've been trolled, that was silly fun :)

Although a Briton and an American may have invented the techniques behind Magnetic Resonance Imaging, the actual MRI scanner was invented by an Armenian: Raymond Damadian