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Theory, meet fact..

Instead of anecdotes, let's look at statistics: "Study: CEO pay negatively linked to profitability."

That doesn't mean we shouldn't "allow" people to be Steve Jobs, it means we shouldn't let a bunch of overpaid pretenders ride his coat tails.

Manning released thousands of confidential papers. Regardless of what we think about him (I support his actions, but then again, I'm not American), it's still more grave than a single re-tweet.

No, I heard the researcher on the radio yesterday; the toads unexpectedly left the area for a few days & whilst they were gone, the quake hit; the toads returned after the quake, she had a couple of hypotheses about how the toads could detect the coming quake, but freely admitted she had no strong evidence for them.

More anecdotes if you want them. I was on Grand Cayman a week after Haiti was struck with an earthquake. Anyway, offshore a large earthquake happened. Coincidentally I was at the turtle farm (a massive sea turtle farm on the island). Now, all we felt was a bit of a brief shaking but the sea turtles were flipping out during it and for about ten minutes afterward. They were trying to crawl out of their cement tanks and looked like they didn't care what was getting scratched up, they just wanted up and out. I asked one of the workers what was going on with the turtles and he said he'd never seen it. Then we were told that an earthquake had just hit offshore (I was extremely intoxicated on some variant of rum so I 'missed' the earthquake).

I'm not saying they predicted it but they sure exhibited a crazy amount of sensitivity and acted like it was the end of the world when it happened. More so than my drunk ass could conjure anyway. I remember hearing that animals left for higher ground during tsunamis but never gave it much credibility but who knows? Sounds far fetched but it's a difficult if not impossible thing to prove or disprove I suppose.

If enough Satellites have you within range, they use the strength of the signal and their own relative positioning to calculate where you are. Thing of it like a Ven Diagram which overlaps, but also has the complexit of 3D space.

I think maybe you have your Numb3rs confused. GPS satellites simply don't give a shit where you are. Its your Sprints that track you, not your Magellans.

Point of reference: Apple Q2 sales of Macs fell 3% as opposed to MS' 6%, but ipods and iphones were still growing, giving the company a net profit. Couple this to the data over the last year or so showing that usage share of windows operating systems has been eroding a 1-3% a year for the last four years, it appears that microsoft seems to be losing, but it's slow going. It could easily turn around with a new successful operating system by MS.

It's still good form to explain an acronym once. Yeah, I got the AP part, AHN required a quick Google. Not that Slashdot is going to win any journalism awards (or any other awards for that matter), but pendants have to have something to complain about.

I think you should take in a few of the "innocents"

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7010883859
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-06-27-russia-gitmo_N.htm
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=4033420
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/03/fbc50158-46a9-4921-80db-195b1fe720b8.html
http://www.france24.com/en/20080508-suicide-bomber-former-guantanamo-detainee-usa-iraq-mosul-kuwaiti
http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/cubanews/2007w46/msg00251.htm

So once you've got Omar Bin Whackjob and a few of his friends settled into your home, why not pick up a few 100lbs of Fertalizer and leave him your credit card so he can rent a truck?

That "monster" settlement infringes on the trademarks of Monster Cable, Inc.

This might be offtopic, but I'm willing to risk it. There are now fourteen deadly sins.

Article here.

So, let's see. The RIAA is certainly guilty of the new 4, 5, and 6. They're also guilty of 3 if you count noise pollution from crappy manufactured pop bands. And probably 7, I think that's pretty much a given too if you read any of their justifications on their behavior.

So, all they have to do is clone Lance Bass and they'll have a hat trick on the new list.

New Medical Technique Frees Transplant Patients From Lifetime Anti-Rejection Drugs January 24, 2008 9:32 a.m. EST

See info about the chicken pox vaccine wearing off over time, same for whooping cough.

Exactly why do people insist on comparing "Piracy" to "Controlled Substances". I don't remember the last time Piracy altered somebody's life, caused physical distress or even death, or even contributed to a fatal car accident.

Oh, that's easy. I don't think they've sent robot dragonflies to the Middle East because they sent cyborg squirrels instead.

we're looking at the many-pages bills (a non-issue that I'm sure at&t will fix very soon, given the waste of paper etc.), while others are looking at whether they want to send in their iPhone for a long repair, or just wing it with a slowly dying touchscreen; http://news.google.com/news?q=iphone+screen

(
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7008165081
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=41629
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf50 0/200708100542DOWJONESDJONLINE000374_FORTUNE5.htm
http://news.com.com/8301-13579_3-9757844-37.html
)

Summary: Apple purchased the touchscreen tech from a Finnish company that had plans for a similar type of device but was in serious financial trouble. At the time of purchase, the Finnish company made it clear that one of the issues was that the heat-activated chemical yadda used would deteriorate, rendering any area where it has done so completely unusable. The problems described / etc. so far appear to be this particular issue, meaning that Apple possibly hasn't completely solved this issue since the purchase. If this is the case, then many more cases are likely to follow. As the iPhone has no buttons, it effectively becomes a brick, meaning that 'winging it' has to be done with broken wings. At least Apple 'fixes' them as fast as they get them.. but if the replacement simply gives you the same problems, well...

I'm really disappointed that someone posted this completely baseless article (dated April 2, no less). It's been well-refuted. To quote the source, which is Karen Pollock, Chief Executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust in London: "... There is one particular line relating to Holocaust education which has been the focus of the press and various alarmed emails. It features in the section addressing why teachers avoid teaching certain subjects and states: '. A history department in a northern city recently avoided selecting the Holocaust as a topic for GCSE coursework for fear of confronting anti-Semitic (sic) sentiment and Holocaust denial among some Muslim pupils'." Oh, and no one in Japan has mistaken a sheep for poodle, either, despite media reports to the contrary.

"A school safety drill that included police officers in riot gear with weapons has caused concern among some parents who say it was too realistic and frightened some students."

"Students, who were unaware police were conducting a drill, were taken from the classroom into the halls, patted down by officers and asked what they had in their pockets, the newspaper said."

"Some of these kids were so scared, they just about wet their pants," said Marge Bradshaw, a parent with four children in Godfrey-Lee Schools. "I think it's pure wrong that the students and parents were not informed of this."

} Even All Headline News hosted a report of the same contemptuous assault and battery of children, and now even their Article is gone.

Sure, they could be helping to *stimulate* those young minds into submittance, but they are also corrupting the public record of these events; the assault of the presumed-Actors moving to the commercial Scribes and non-commercial editors and their Book-keepers to CORRUPT the complete accounts and Rolls of those events. I find it stimulating that the only branches of society that could store, recollect, and preserve such evidence of terrorism are the same that are accused to be "schizzophrenic", "crazies", and "conspiracy theorists" yet they are not causing any tort or tresspass by their conservatorship over said records; StopTheDrugWar is one such persevered embalmer of these record of non-pretend raids on schools, having no difference between that of Actors and the 'tended drug raids. Even as far back as 2003 there was a video that gets posted with an article of same subjective pretended Raids and non-pretended Actors, but eventually is deleted. It makes its way around, here it is again of Stratford High School at Goose Creek. I have a couple more to reference of the same feet of non-pretend Actors, like this horrible creature, and yet another

Makes you understand why William Shatner refused a free flight on the maiden voyage of a Space Ship Two :) These guys jinxed themselves...

In a 'feel good' move, the premier of Ontario decided that his party will ban incandescent light bulbs by 2012. I am going to make me a business selling those in Ontario on the black market. CFLs can go screw themselves, I am not gonna use them.

The article makes no mention of the fact that it has been disease and not navigation problems the honeybees have been suffering from. There is already strong evidence that a disease that attacks the bees immune systems is the culprit and not anything to do with navigation.

Disease article 1

Disease article 2

Disease article 3

these are three of hundreds by the way.

So where's the link from navigation to disease. Sure the bees may not be returning, but maybe because they died along the way and not that they got lost. The only possible link is the bees know of certain things that cause disease that they stay away from, but until some link as such is shown this theory it isn't worth a dime.

They showed what would happen as a consequence of every degree increase in the earth's temperature. Those consequences include species disappearing, floods and starvation for humans.

isn't there an anti-piracy badge for the boyscouts now?

Even Hans Blix says likewise...
Blix also claims the situation would have been better if the war had not taken place, saying, "Saddam would still have been sitting in office. Okay, that is negative and it would not have been joyful for the Iraqi people. But what we have gotten is undoubtedly worse."

Not Global Warming - Global Climate Change!

Get with the program...

That way no matter what happpens, the research scientists (and politicians) are going to right, and we know how important that is.

Did I hear that the Ozone Hole got bigger this year even with CFCs being outlawed?
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7005070041

Revised estimates are that ozone levels won't be back to "normal" over Antartica until 2065.

The reason the hole appears to have grown to a record size this season was unusually *cold* tempereratures in the stratosphere this winter (winter in the Southern Hemisphere, that is). Surely a cold stratosphere is proof of the existance of man made global warming!

http://www.ghcc.msfc.nasa.gov/MSU/msusci.html

Now this information puts forth the idea that cooler strophosphere temperatures are *due* to ozone depletion, not caused by it... and that CO2 levels are also responsible. Ignore the two big red spikes when major volcanic eruptions occurred. Data points like that are not relevant to computing average values or trends - they just tend to make computer models produce strange predictions.

Or try this reasearch:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-11/uow -std112904.php

That the esimates in the models were off by 40 to 70% of what would happen to the temperature of the trophosphere because of "contamination" of the data from the strophosphere data.

Can I go back to eating my transfats now?

...I've often read that European laws offer their citizens greater protection than the US...

And see how Linux Torvalds blasts those radical views:

http://www.crn.com/sections/breakingnews/dailyarch ives.jhtml?articleId=191600924

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7004367120

RJ

certain level. If you're a multi-millionaire, how many unearned millions do your children really need to get along comfortably in life? Cap inheritances at 10 million per child, and we'd see a substantial rise in revenues as well as a substantial rise in charitable giving. This might be a way to pay for more tax cuts for the living (although we still need to pay for the current tax cuts first!). Anyway, social programs are important, but we need to be able to pay for them! If we can't afford them, we need to cut the least necessary/lower priority ones.

In a way I agree but then people can do like Warren Buffet did in his annoucement with Bill Gates. Warren Buffet To Donate $37 Billion To Gates Foundation. Children shouldn't need that much of an inheritance, especially when well raised, but I'd rather see the money go to charities or foundations than for the government to grab it. Though I don't have any stats I believe money can do more and better when in private hands than with the government.

Actually...before YOU have a kneejerk reaction...do your research! There are many places in the country either requiring pet owners to chip their pets or considering a measure that would do just that. Many shelters will not let you take your animal home until they have inserted a microchip. Chicago is the latest to consider a measure for dogs: http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7003728264 /

Oh yes, because OUR system works so well, with those Senators getting down on their knees and puckering up to any large corporation with a few million bucks every six years. (Granted, they don't seem to be as blindly bad as some members of the House, but that's a pretty low bar these days.)

The UK system of government undoubtedly has its share of problems, but the House of Lords isn't it.

Except for the fact that it's not a sort of thing that you can just create (it's more something that you can only have, if it's been in existence since before the rest of the government formed) I'd say that it wouldn't be such a bad idea to do something like that here, in my more exasperated moments. In theory, it's a pretty good idea -- a bunch of people who aren't subject to the whims of fat-walleted corporate/PAC pimps and who have no other function in the government aside from taking the longest possible view. (Arguably this is the function of the USSC here, I suppose.)

The purpose that our Senate was originally supposed to serve, namely to be a brake on the other half of the Legislature, it seems to regularly fail to do; each party's House and Senate contingents seem to be in lock-step on all but the smallest details (you generally have to get down to the wording of particular bills to find differences between Senate and House versions, the intent is rarely very different on major issues). So I'm not sure that I would be dismissing the concept of a House of Lords so quickly. If I were a UK citizen (subject?) I'd be awfully reticent to throw away anything that might act as a brake on the rest of government, however anachronistic it might seem. If they were trying to drag the entire country back to the 17th century I might feel less cautious, but it doesn't seem like there's any evidence of that.

However bad you think your government is now, with enough meddling it could always get spectacularly worse in a hurry.

Probably because the store is closing. Radio Shack is having big problems. Profit is down 62% for the quarter, the CEO lied on his resume and was fired, and they're closing 400 to 700 stores.

Apparently most of Radio Shack's profits come from selling cell phone contracts.

Yet, the Govt is behind this.

If you don't want to login to NYT, heres my "Top Ten List of New Cool Crap for 2005":

1. Curious Georges new free Wiretap program
2. Birdflu v.2.0
3. Boxing Day sans Tsunami
4. European CIA Jail System
5. Removal of Marti Gras from your travel ideas
6. A (great) Daily Show spinoff
7. The spread of Scientology
8. Marines shooting at and killing escaping hostages
9. Adoption Press Release Kits
10. Stem Cell Magicians

Regarding fructose, here's a story I tried submitting to slashdot which didn't get through:

Fructose Tricks Body Into Being Hungrier

Researchers at the University of Florida have recently discovered that fructose may be a primary cause of America's growing obesity rate. According to their research, fructose tricks the body into being hungrier than it should be. High-fructose corn syrup is often used as a sweetener in US soft drinks and foods due to corn subsidies and sugar import tariffs.

'...so why don't the Microsofts and Sonys of the world just implement it in future consoles, if only to shut up the cries of "won't someone think of the children?!"'

Good question, and the answer is that all of the big three have already announced that there will be parental controls for their systems. In the case of the X360 it is supposedly even backwards-compatible to X-Box games although I don't know if that's been thoroughly tested yet. For reference:

X360: http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000283051379/
PS3: http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7001215012
Revolution: http://www.physorg.com/news8644.html

Unfortunately I doubt this will shut anyone up. Remember, we have an election next year and so far almost all of the biggest supporters of these bills (both the state bills and Clinton's FEPA) have announced that they are 'considering' a run for the democratic presidential nomination in '08.

Coward:

Really?

A study conducted by University of Kentucky labor and health economist Dr. Aaron Yelowitz

Some grain of salt studies:
Government study so take it for what it is

another study

Perhaps, Tokyo should consider using Japan's arsensal high-performance computers to advance the state of the art in fighter aircraft and space vehicles. Designing these devices requires intensive numerical simulations which are ideally suited to such high-performance computers, which have been relegated to more mundane tasks like terrestrial simulations (e.g. weather simulation). Building the precursor to a starship seems to be a tad more interesting than terrestrial simulations.