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Well, there was an MIT study that showed that random search was more secure than profiling.
http://www.acfnewsource.org/science/random_security.html

Also helpful is allowing frequent travelers who go through extra checks to have a special ID to go through speedily. This used to be a commercial service. Like HOV lanes, it speeds up traffic for everyone. And it makes sense that the travelers who travel the most would pay to have extra background checks to travel faster.
http://www.flyclear.com/

The TSA blacklist seems to be a very bad idea, it has lots of errors, and it's way too easy to use it as a harassment tool against people or political groups that any sort of government agency or official doesn't like.
http://vigilant.tv/article/3071/epic-publishes-tsa-blacklist-memos

Ask these students. There are other folks who've done it more "officially", but my Google-fu is weak today, and pretty much any search on "copyright" usually trawls up RIAA/MPAA links

Should we even care about small time dreamers anymore? Should the entire process of patent reform have to grind to a halt in order to allow "Joe Inventor", if he exists or indeed ever existed, to still play the patent lottery game? $300,000 dollars per patent seems just fine by me.

Yes, there are still useful patents and techniques put out by the little guys and lone inventors, especially ones that can be used in the third world. Here a two I found from a quick Google search, and I remember another one that involves a special buried clay pot.

http://researchmag.asu.edu/stories/dewey.html
http://www.acfnewsource.org/science/3rd_world_invention.html

http://www.acfnewsource.org/science/ethanol_woes.h tml

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/corn-based-e thanols-flawed-concept/story.aspx?guid=%7BEC55D7AD -6E1C-4AD8-912F-A2A0BD4D4299%7D

There is evidence that ethanol is a technological dead end because of the amount of energy required to produce it, and we may not be able to grow enough crops to support really widespread use without clearing more land.

I don't know the real answer, but it seems wise not to commit to a technology unless you can be sure of it's consequences.

There has been some research for a number of years concerning the
feasibility of extracting methane hydrates from the ocean floor.
While not proven, there's quite a bit of speculation in the geological
circles that all it would take is one screw-up to disrupt the stability
of the ocean floor. This could potentially cause anything from tsunami
to large bubbles of methane percolating into our atmosphere. You think
CO2 is an issue? Methane is a much more fierce 'greenhouse gas'.

So not only is there potential to for CO2 to escape if not buried properly,
but a variety of other mishaps could occur that would potentially wreck
havoc. Hrmm. Doesn't seem like the most plausible choice of action.

Wow. This line of research could have amazing benefits in bedrest, aging, and osteoporosis. Goes to show the benefits of exospecies medical research.

-- Should we save that rainforest after all?

Calcium supplements wouldn't help, but there is work being done that may one day lead to a suppliment that would prevent bone loss.

Peak Oil folks take one valid idea (oil is finite, and running out will be painful), but then devolve into irrational fear-mongering about it. If thermal depolymerization can net the US four billion barrels of oil from agricultural waste we currently throw away, running out of ground oil ain't going to be causing a new Stone Age.

Steroids are passe -- the new trend will be gene doping...

Imagine it's the summer Olympics, 2008, and athletes are shattering records like never before. Tests for traditional performance-enhancing drugs like testosterone and anabolic steroids are coming up negative, yet something about the athletes is different: their genes have been altered to increase strength and endurance.

This navy study

and here, and again.

People against racial profiling usually claim it's just racism

Not really. Check this.

Non-organic substances (and even some organic ones) don't induce an immune system response that would result in rejection. Nobody has a bad immune response to a pacemaker.

From an article on bionic hearts:

"Many organ transplants fail because the recipient rejects the donated organ. Specifically, the proteins of a foreign body are what cause rejection; the recipient cannot mesh, at a biochemical level, with the donor. With artificial technologies, however, rejection is not a problem because the body does not reject plastic."

On the rare occasions that artifical prosthetics are rejected it's for entirely different reasons that wouldn't apply on a cellular level.

The authors described a system by which actual terrorists could easily use a screening system as a tool. By sending known terrorists and terrorists with no record on flights, terrorist cells could determine who will pass the screening, and actually be less likely to be searched in the future. Increasing their chances of enacting terrorism on a plane.

Open source sig, feel free to modify and distribute.

My parents are both teachers, and one of the most tiresome quarrels in education is Phonics vs. Whole-Word debate. Do you teach someone to read by teaching them how to sound out syllables (phonemes)? Or do you teach them to recognize whole-word patterns by rote?

Experimentally, a pure-phonics approach has proven to have the highest success rate. However, these results would suggest that whole-word approach *does* map onto some important cognitive structure . Perhaps this means that, once past the basic level, whole-word techniques would prove to be valuable in turning beginning readers into advanced readers.