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It's possible that in five years, ubiquitous LTE coverage will mean streaming radio to cars will suddenly start to become viable, but XM/Sirius has an opportunity to carve out a niche in the meantime, and at that point Sirius/XM will become more of a seller of streaming services than a satellite operator.

If they go bankrupt in the immediate future, they have no opportunity to carve out a niche. It doesn't just look bad for their future, it looks dire. Even if they do manage to survive, having the legacy of satellites will be a weight over their heads that newer competition won't have to worry about. Either they have to spend substantial amounts of money on maintaining the satellite capability or they risk alienating customers who don't want to switch away from satellite (and who will generate bad word of mouth for them if dropped).

Even when they do, you're going to have to find a streaming service worth listening to (hey, here's an idea, subscribe to Sirius!)

Assuming they don't go under as well, streaming services ala Pandora offer features that Sirius doesn't like customizable stations and the ability to skip tracks you don't like.

you've ignored the part of my comment where I pointed out Sirius-XM can exist without satellites.

The point of the article that this discussion is talking about was looking at technologies that the author expects to have financial problems this coming year. The fact that people like ad-free content is irrelevant if there's not enough people willing to pay what's required for a business to justify running it. From what I understand, part of the merger means they can't raise prices for three years, which means they have to increase the number of subscribers or substantially reduce costs. The former sounds challenging and the latter is hard to do without causing subscribers to drop their memberships.

If opportunity exists, it's most likely for someone who buys the satellites for dimes on the dollar after a Sirius bankruptcy, escaping the massive startup costs that they caused as well as overvalued contracts such as Howard Stern.

iPods contain a fixed collection of content that can only be updated when you're at a computer, with items you select in advance. I can't even begin to imagine why you'd bring them up as a Sirius-XM competitor.

Because most people who want to listen to something while they're driving don't really care what form their entertainment comes from - they just want to hear something that they enjoy. As belts get tightened, people will look at what redundancies exist in their life. How many of your friends who subscribe also have mp3 players? I'm not overly familiar with any of Sirius/XM stations other than Lucy, but from what I can tell, it could be pretty easily simulated with about 20GB (if that much) of mp3s. You don't get quite the variety, but you only have songs that you like and you gain the ability to do things like skip and pause. Unless you're a talk radio or sports devotee or for some reason really love one of the satellite radio stations, sticking your favourite mp3s (and maybe subscribing to some podcasts for variety) on an mp3 player make a fine replacement for radio. Personally, I don't like driving to music I don't know - I don't want to be distracted by new material.

Obligatory Futurama.

Here's a video site that features it.

But that will change the future!!!

AOL has had this for years. If you have an AOL ID you can see if at http://my.screenname.aol.com./ It's essentially "kerberos for the web". Unfortunately (a) it's a bear to get working (on the apache side), (b) is only used by their partners, and (c) forces you to use your AOL login. But other than that it's pretty nifty - if only they would open source it.

What is needed are clear terms of usage.

What in the world are you talking about? All of the sites in question have a nice link to AOL's TOS at the bottom of the page. Their TOS is fairly specific about what you can expect from the service (in this case pay attention to points 6, 17, and 18), which is absolutely squat if they say so. The services are free, what else would you expect?

I agree that there are a lot of problems with the TOS for many services, but those problems usually don't stem from being unclear (most of the time), they stem from the fact that most TOS are downright draconian, spelled out to the letter and leave the consumer with negligible wiggle room.

What is needed are clear terms of usage.

What in the world are you talking about? All of the sites in question have a nice link to AOL's TOS at the bottom of the page. Their TOS is fairly specific about what you can expect from the service (in this case pay attention to points 6, 17, and 18), which is absolutely squat if they say so. The services are free, what else would you expect?

I agree that there are a lot of problems with the TOS for many services, but those problems usually don't stem from being unclear (most of the time), they stem from the fact that most TOS are downright draconian, spelled out to the letter and leave the consumer with negligible wiggle room.

If you download the official AIM client for Windows Mobile, it acts as a proper IM client and goes over TCP/IP, not SMS.

General release

Latest beta

It's been working fine on my Tilt for those times I need it.

If you download the official AIM client for Windows Mobile, it acts as a proper IM client and goes over TCP/IP, not SMS.

General release

Latest beta

It's been working fine on my Tilt for those times I need it.

Silence Ann Coulter? Ask and ye shall receive.

Exactly - allow people to take the law into their own hands, and you get the above situation or even worse:

http://news.aol.com/article/boy-killed-while-trick-or-treating/234790

Have you seen Japan's rail systems? I think you need to watch this video. DC Metro or NYC or Chicago don't even come close.

I don't know why they do that. In London, it can be that busy. But the PA system will say "Please stand back from the train. There is another in 3 minutes" and the doors shut.

"Please do not obstruct the doors, as this causes delays."
"This train is ready to depart. Please mind the closing doors."

Have you seen Japan's rail systems? I think you need to watch this video. DC Metro or NYC or Chicago don't even come close.

We've probably all seen the video on youtube with the stoned spiders, and the kooky webs they make. I wonder what the effects of cosmic radiation will be on this spider who will be waiting a long time for a snack to buzz into his web. Unless, by space-surviving spider, they mean he can eat non-living things like dust? I think he likely drifted off like the $100000 tool belt that one space-walking astronaught lost yesterday. At least this loss wasn't as expensive. However it's possible this is a mutated spider that craves the media attention for the lulz, in which case it's possible that the spider unlatched the tool-belt in order to make a getaway, and build his own Evil Spider Space Station, with his newly acquired tool set, and other classified missing materials (that would not be reported)!

Although in another scenario, the tool belt will fall to earth with the spider riding it, Slim Pickens style, to crash land and obliterate some curious bystander, ala Dead Like Me. I still think it is more likely the spider will crash land somewhere and start another internet meme (link site contains articles that are 100% NSFW).

You mean like the idea of giving $1000 to people unwilling to work will improve our economy?

No. I mean this: http://thinkprogress.org/2008/10/24/palin-fruit-flies/ and http://chicago.about.com/od/neighborhoodshistory/a/AdlerDebateStmt.htm (which he mentioned TWICE in debates), http://www.factcheck.org/outrageous_exaggerations.html (hint: DNA study), etc.

Or something like this: http://news.aol.com/newsbloggers/2008/03/04/mccain-perpetuates-vaccine-autism-myth/

Stupid positions on foreign affairs? Like maybe the willingness to sit down with tin-pot dictators who would get populace support from demonizing the US and then forcing the our leaders to negotiate with them?

Ok. What else do you propose? Kill these poor people to save them from suffering? You'll HAVE to talk to them.

Look, I'm from Russia. We had our problem with Chechen terrorists, it is now mostly solved. But only after Putin made peace with a former Chechen terrorist and supported him in rebuilding destroyed Chechnya.

No, I don't think I can overlook that one either. Pandering to the extreme religious right? You mean instead of pandering to the extreme religious left? Yeah. I'll probably let that one slip by in a "don't care" conditional.

How about not pandering to religion at all? Or _at_ _least_ pander to religious moderates.

Oh well, I'm already diversifying my business. I guess I won't have much clients from the US after another 4 years of Republican administration.

Now imagine 50 million baby boomers with similar level of non-expertise trying to use a PC-based machine

I'd like to see Barack Obama ridiculing these 50 million voters' computer (il)literacy, the way he ridiculed John McCain. Wouldn't that be sure vote-winner, uhm?

Those 50 million other Americans who may or may not need to use a computer in their daily lives shouldn't be ridiculed. A person running for the highest office in the land, who is expected to adapt and change as the world does, should be.

Now imagine 50 million baby boomers with similar level of non-expertise trying to use a PC-based machine

I'd like to see Barack Obama ridiculing these 50 million voters' computer (il)literacy, the way he ridiculed John McCain. Wouldn't that be sure vote-winner, uhm?

The USA has had INVISIBLE Isreali-piloted submarine planes since the early 1980s. The BOLSHEVIKS in Washington were only stymied in their plans for world DOMINATION by the use of PSYCHO-KINETIC RANGE FINDING.

This was all revealed in detail by Dr. Peter Beter in his series of Audio Letters in 1981 - 1982.

Oh yeah? Think I'm just trying to be funny, do ya? HA! Take this:
http://www.peterdavidbeter.com/

And THIS:

http://members.aol.com/rem547/

I doubt if any form of libertarian government would confiscate personal property to pay for another's upkeep. That smacks of communism.

We have that in Australia right now. Money is property. Income tax pays for the dole.

A society should look after their aged, poor etc. It's a matter of ethics and morals. You believe in that or you don't.

I do, but morals and ethics are matters of choice, ie: if the government takes my money and gives it to the poor I have done nothing moral at all. Charity ought rightly involve both generosity and gratitude. It's part of what builds the community, yet with government compulsion, both giver and recipient tend towards resentment, or even worse, for the recipients to develop a sense of entitlement. This is the norm in Australia today because people see the money as coming from "the government" and not "my working friends and neighbours". I'm not saying that there is no place at all for government to be involved in charitable works, but the system as it stands has actively destroyed morals, ethics and community.

However in a completely Libertarian society you would have no such need as every member would ensure that they provide for themselves in case times get hard.

People would still help each other in hard times, as we still do voluntarily now anyway. The idea that we need government compulsion to force us to help each other is repulsive to me and not true anyway. Look at the amount of disaster relief that gets raised and the rate of child sponsorships and the like.

After all, by accepting that a portion of your tax dollar go towards public education and public health while still having the right to do as you please, could be a solution.

The Communist Manifesto lists government schooling as one of the 10 central tools for destroying the "old social order" and "entirely revolutionising the mode of production". I personally regard compulsory government controlled schooling with the same distaste I would have for compulsory government controlled religion. How can you be free if a government agent tells you how to think? If you aren't familiar with John Taylor Gatto's work there's a good introduction here: http://hometown.aol.com/tma68/7lesson.htm

You've got some good ideas, I hope you're not offended. I have you marked as a friend for some time now, so we must have some substantial agreement on some issues.

... for a more civilized times.

As can be seen from the diagram (left), magnetic reversal has occurred fairly chaotically in the last 160 million years. Long-term data suggests that the longest stable period between magnetic "flips" is nearly 40 million years (during the Cretaceous period over 65 million years BC) and the shortest is a few hundred years.

Some 2012 theories suggest that the Earth's geomagnetic reversal is connected to the natural 11-year solar cycle. Again, there is absolutely no scientific evidence to support this claim. No data has ever been produced suggesting a Sun-Earth magnetic polarity change connection.

So, already this doomsday theory falters in that geomagnetic reversal does not occur with "clockwork regularity," and it has no connection with solar dynamics. We are not due a magnetic flip as we cannot predict when the next one is going to occur, magnetic reversals occur at seemingly random points in history.

Well you know what. Back at'cha bub. There is no evidence to support your theories ether. There is no evidence stating geomagnetic reversal *isn't* related to the solar cycle. And there is no evidence stating we are not due for such a reversal.

See graph on the FA.

BTW... just to clarify - something "random" can not have a 11-year cycle. Integer described cycle is NOT RANDOM.
Ergo... no connection or even correlation between the 11-year solar cycle and magnetic shifts.

Also... being "due" for something implies prediction.
As of yet - we are not able to predict random events. Even ones with 160 million years of previous cases.
Just because there is a minuscule chance of me being hit by a meteor right now...
OK... nothing happened...

  ... that does not mean that I am "due" to be hit by a meteor.
Or to win a lottery.
.
.
.
OK... still not being hit by a meteor...

$7.9 million? MASA will launch any payload and successfully land it on the moon for two hundred dollars.

I like to refer people who argue the ACW wasn't about slavery to Jim Epperson's site. Great collection of documents and quotes. http://members.aol.com/jfepperson/causes.html One that's worth putting out there: "the moment this House undertakes to legislate upon this subject [slavery], it dissolves the Union. Should it be my fortune to have a seat upon this floor, I will abandon it the instant the first decisive step is taken looking towards legislation of this subject. I will go home to preach, and if I can, practice, disunion, and civil war, if needs be. A revolution must ensue, and this republic sink in blood." (James H. Hammond, Congressman from South Carolina)

First, I make a distinction between science and culture. When teaching culture, and I consider literature to be a part of it, then it makes sense to teach some aspects of Christianity and other religious belief. In science classes, there's no reason to do so. If there are laws that say you can't mention Christianity in an English literature class, I don't believe there are, then that's wrong.

I'd like to add that I'm not American so I can only judge the school system there from what I read and hear from others.

Second, about the Bible. You can't be serious. Just look here and explain some of these inconsistencies.

If you are looking for Ansi C syntax,check this out. I know it's aol.com, but the guy has one heck of a reference page. It's all on one page (print it if you like) and EVERYTHING is referenced with hyperlinks. You can find by name, function, "similar to", library, etc.

There are no examples, but the documentation is top-notch.

We have had more of our troops KIA in one month during Viet Nam as we have had during the whole Iraq war.

Sorry, but that's just false. We never lost more than 3000 men in Vietnam in a single month. The most KIA was 543 in April 1969.

http://members.aol.com/warlibrary/vwc24.htm

Contrast this with the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in World War I, in which over 26,000 American soldiers died in one battle. That's almost half as many as the entire Vietnam war.

http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/bbdp/ford-wont-sell-65-mpg-fiesta-in-us/164929

The editors note that is now attached to the Register article that you link to really does not help to support your position. Incidentally I remember having read earlier that year that the warming trend will be put on hold this year because of a severe La Nina effect - apparently the National Geographic guys didn't get the memo.

The Register article DID help my position, however not as dramatically as I would have hoped :)

The Ice extent graph showed 10% more ice than last year, whereas the map showed 30% more pixels than last year. The two sets of data appeared to be contradictory, but they were not. Still, the 10% increase of ice from last year instead of their being almost no ice is a big difference.

Especially since it wasn't just national geographic reporting this, it was almost everyone!

Exclusive: Scientists warn that there may be no ice at North Pole ...
North Pole could be ice-free this summer, scientists say - CNN.com
North Pole could be ice free in 2008 - climate-change - 25 April ...
ABC News: North Pole Could Be Ice Free in 2008
FOXNews.com - Report: North Pole May Be Ice-Free This Summer ...
North Pole Could be Ice-Free This Summer | LiveScience
Summer may see first ice-free North Pole - Climate Change- msnbc.com
North Pole May Be Ice-Free This Year - AOL News
No North Pole ice for 1st time in human history?_English_Xinhua
An Ice-Free North Pole? - TIME

Just a simple google search for "north pole ice free" will give you 1000's of articles. Notice how every one of these articles has very little variation. Not even fox news challenged the claim.

So much for a free and independent press.

As a former High School InfoTech student and current College Programming Student, I really don't find textbooks that useful at all. Truthfully, the only use I ever get out of textbooks (other than reading the questions the teacher's assign) is reading the examples and the using the reference section.

Not only do examples and references exist on the web, but it is SO much easier to use a reference with hyperlinks than to have to jump between pages of a book

If you really need some good ideas I have a list of resourses:
- CodeSyntax - Basis syntax for Java,C,Python,etc
- JavaBat - different levels of Java puzzles (ajax handles compiling/etc, no software required)
- Eddie's Basic Guide to C Programming
- ANSI Dictionary - unbelievably nice ANSI dictionary, fully cross-referenced.

Consider setting up a wiki-book full of information, labs, excersies and tutorials. This is a computer class after all and information should be easy to find without needing to pack yet ANOTHER heavy book around. To make your job easier, you could allow the students to add stuff to the wiki (log activity of course), even setting up a page where they can add useful websites they've found.

I have two kinds of 8" floppy drives.

I have three kinds of 5.25" floppy drives.

I have three KINDS of 3.5" floppy drives.

I have interfaces for them all.

I read someones dissertation off a 25 year old floppy a few weeks ago.

I could read 9 track tape if I had to. ( http://www.wiltec.com/ among others )

Punch cards are getting to be a little more trouble, but after all, that's more than 100 year old tech. ( http://users.aol.com/JEBrown800/software/Store/CardReaderService/index.html among others )

I don't know why you would be hard pressed to find equipment to read media more than 25 years old, but some of us are, ourselves, more than 25 years old and have equipment like that in the attic or basement.

Want an apple ][ audio tape read? There's a service that will decode an mp3 for you.

Really, the simplest answer for this guy is to either burn archival quality cd r/w's or have some dvd's pressed by an archival quality company. The other solutions people are talking about are reasonable for 100 years, or 500 years or 1000 years. but 25??? Ptooy.

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/snl-funny-terrorist-names/4040669571

"M'balz es-Hari"
"Haid D'Salaami"
"Mustaf Herod Apyur Poupr"
"Usuqa M'diq"
"Hous bin Phartin"
"I'zheet m'drawrz"

I think the claim to have beaten the Global Hawk by 2x is a bit misleading - it implies a doubling of existing capabilities. In fact, it only UNOFFICIALLY doubles an OFFICIAL record, which itself is not the longest flight recorded by any means. In 1989 a Boeing UAV named Condor flew over 58 hours, and had a design endurance of 80 hours. Okay, they never claimed it as an official record, but it was still a valid flight, just like this was.

Here's an interesting video:
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/boeing-condor-uav/4285692709

And some facts:
http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=7988

Granted, the Zephyr is theoretically limited only by the service life of its electrical components - it could stay up until something broke or wore out. But please, let's use real facts here.

My friends and I have done it to each other to see what it's all about, and it's not bad at fucking all if you have any willpower/brains.

Waterboarding's not so fucking bad, eh? Then why is the US even using it? And if amateur/non-hardened terrorist types like you and your buddies are able to easily withstand it, then what good is it as a form of torture? (Note that John McCain flip-flopped and voted *for* waterboarding even after he denounced it.)

Regardless, torture is considered a lossy means of extracting information from interrogation subjects. Because with the threat of imminent death (e.g. repeated waterboardings, with the drowning response telling your body that you're about to die), you'll do anything to save your life, won't you? Like making shit up. (Of course, making shit up is just what the US did to get us into the Iraq war in the first place.)

I'd be unsurprised to learn that waterboarding is a kind of red herring - there are many far more simple, painful and damaging techniques that our rendition and torture outsource partners (and let us not forget contractors) are all too willing to employ. That's what you can do when you partner with dictatorships in a war on terror.

Actually, if such software was open sourced, for example, people might be able to come up with new and beneficial uses - not to mention being able to fix problems themselves.

Or do you not remember honda's "Accidental" higher mileage clocking that if people had access to the software, they could fix themselves. http://autos.aol.com/article/general/v2/_a/honda-odometer-problem/20070220091309990002

Also, they use proprietary stuff just to connect to the car that is prohibitive to the consumer (quite intentionally). You don't think those devices actually cost 1000$ or so, do you?

Cars are an example of proprietary gone wrong.

"It takes quite a lot of effort to turn a naturally curious child into a mumbling, illiterate worker bee who lives to shop, but Americans are known for their can-do spirit."

John Taylor Gatto makes exactly this point, suggesting schools were designed specifically to destroy curiousity and initiative so as to make people obedient workers, obedient soldiers, and compliant consumers. See:
    "The Seven-Lesson Schoolteacher" by John Taylor Gatto - 1991 New York State Teacher of the Year
    http://hometown.aol.com/tma68/7lesson.htm
And:
    "The Underground History of American Education"
    http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/toc1.htm
"The shocking possibility that dumb people don't exist in sufficient numbers to warrant the millions of careers devoted to tending them will seem incredible to you. Yet that is my central proposition: the mass dumbness which justifies official schooling first had to be dreamed of; it isn't real."
And:
    http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/prologue6.htm
"Once the best children are broken to such a system, they disintegrate morally, becoming dependent on group approval. A National Merit Scholar in my own family once wrote that her dream was to be "a small part in a great machine." It broke my heart. What kids dumbed down by schooling can't do is to think for themselves or ever be at rest for very long without feeling crazy; stupefied boys and girls reveal dependence in many ways easily exploitable by their knowledgeable elders."
And:
    http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/16a.htm
"I'll bring this down to earth. Try to see that an intricately subordinated industrial/commercial system has only limited use for hundreds of millions of self-reliant, resourceful readers and critical thinkers. In an egalitarian, entrepreneurially based economy of confederated families like the one the Amish have or the Mondragon folk in the Basque region of Spain, any number of self-reliant people can be accommodated usefully, but not in a concentrated command-type economy like our own. Where on earth would they fit? In a great fanfare of moral fervor some years back, the Ford Motor Company opened the world's most productive auto engine plant in Chihuahua, Mexico. It insisted on hiring employees with 50 percent more school training than the Mexican norm of six years, but as time passed Ford removed its requirements and began to hire school dropouts, training them quite well in four to twelve weeks. The hype that education is essential to robot-like work was quietly abandoned. Our economy has no adequate outlet of expression for its artists, dancers, poets, painters, farmers, filmmakers, wildcat business people, handcraft workers, whiskey makers, intellectuals, or a thousand other useful human enterprises--no outlet except corporate work or fringe slots on the periphery of things. Unless you do "creative" work the company way, you run afoul of a host of laws and regulations put on the books to control the dangerous products of imagination which can never be safely tolerated by a centralized command system."

When you're having a disagreement, it's always important to spend some time trying to understand the opponent's point of view - see things the way they're seeing it. Just make sure you're avoiding the antiprocess, where both sides of the argument keep thinking "he just doesn't get it!"

See Tim Campbell's Introduction to Antiprocess for more details - I highly recommend this guide.

This has already been done by Beretta, as well. It was featured on Discovery Channel's "Future Weapons with Mack." It's called the Beretta LTLX7000 Kinetic Energy Weapon. Here are some links: Video: http://video.aol.com/video-detail/futureweapons-beretta-ltlx7000/404260523 Still Photo: http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/future-weapons/weapons/zone3/slideshow/slideshow.html (slide #5)

Usually, though, they take the Bible as a guideline for being a "good person", not a book telling you how the scientific parts of the world work. They understand the Bible as a guideline to live a good life, and quite frankly, it is a good book as such. Don't kill, don't steal, take a day off per week so you don't run into a burnout, and generally don't do what you wouldn't want others to do to you. That's a pretty good guideline to work with, if you ask me.

I disagree with this statement. There really are some seriously messed up things in the bible and it is not a good guide for how you should live your life. There are many examples, but here are some from the old testament (you can find examples in the new testament as well). This is from This site

I'd like to give you a list, a litany, of the deeds that God committed somewhere in the Old Testament. Now remember, God, the Perfect Being, did all of folowing in what is supposedly His book. He created evil (Lam. 3:38, Jer. 26:3, 36:3, Ezek. 20.:25-26, Judges 9:3, 1 Sam. 16:23, 18:10); He decieved (Jer. 4:10, 15:18, 20:7, 2 Chron. 18:22, Ezek. 14:9, 2 Thess. 2:9-12); He told people to lie(Ex. 3:18, 1 Sam. 16:2); He lied (Gen 2:17, 2 Sam. 7:13); He rewarded liars (Ex. 1:15-20); He ordered men to become drunken (Jer. 25:27); He rewarded the fool and the transgressor (Prov.26:10); He delivered a man, Job, into Satan's hands (Job 2:6); He mingled a perverse spirit (Isa. 19:14); He spread dung on people's faces (Mal. 2:3)); He ordered stealing (Ezek. 39:10, Ex. 3:22); He made false prophecies (Jonah 3:4. Gen. 5:10); He Changed his mind (Jonah 3:10); He caused adultery (2 Sam. 12:11-12); He ordered the taking of a harlot (Hosea 1:2, 3:1-2); He killed (Num. 16:35, 21:6, Deut. 32:39, 1 Sam. 2:26, Psalm 135:10); He ordered killing (Lev. 26:7-8, Num. 25:4-5); He had a temper (Deut. 13:17, Judges 3:8); He was often jealous (Deut. 5:9, 6:15); He wasn't omnipresent (Gen4:16, 11:5, 1 Kings 19:11-12); He wasn't omniscient (Deut. 8:2, 13:3, 2 Chron. 32:31); He often repented (Ex. 32:14, 1 Sam. 15:35); He practiced injustice (Ex. 4:22-23, Joshua 22:20, Rom. 5:12); He played favorites (Deut. 7:6, 14:2, 1 Sam. 12:22); He sanctioned slavery (Ex. 21:20-21, Deut. 15:17); He degraded deformed people (Lev. 21:16-23); He punished a baster for being illegitimate (Deut. 23:2); He punished many for the acts of one (Gen. 3:16, 20:18); He punished children for the sins of their fathers (Ex. 12:29, 20:5, Deut. 5:9); He prevented people from hearing his word (Isa. 6:10, John 12:39-40); He supported human sacrifice (Ex. 22:29-30, Ezek. 20:26); He ordered cannabalism (Lev. 26: 29, Jer. 19:9); He demanded virgins as a part of war plunder(Num. 31:31-36); He ordered gambling (Joshua 14. 2, Num. 26:52, 55-56); He ordered horses to be hamstrung (Joshua 11:6); He sanctioned violation of the enimies women (Deut. 21:10-14); He excused the beating of slaves to death (Ex. 21:20-21); He required a woman to marry her rapist (Deut. 22:28:29); He taught war (Psalm 144:1); He ordered the burning of human feces to cook food (Ezek. 21:3-5); He intentionally issued bad laws (Ezek. 20:25); He excused the sins of prostitutes and adulerers (Hosea 4:14); He excused a murderer and promised his protection (Gen. 4:8-15); He killed a man who refused to impregnate his widowed sister-in-law (Gen. 38:9-10); and He is indecisive (Gen. 18:17).

Now, you could argue that these are examples of how not to life your life, but the bible does not make this distinction. If you are seeking the bible to learn how to live your life, then by this very action you are admitting that you are incapable of making these moral decisions on your own. So by this token you would be just as likely to rape, murder, commit incest, objectify women etc as you would any of the other good deeds in the bible. However, any person (religious or not) who is 'morally good' by today's standards does not go around committing these acts, and as such I would argue that you do not need the bible at all as a guideline to live a good life.

GP don't cite reference for his numbers where as at least one can argue with the numbers in the BBC article. Vietname war cost 111 billions the GDP of the US was roughly 3500+ over the years of the war so 111 billion total cost is NOWHERE near 9.4% it is at most 3% of any given year. Furthermore inflation adjusted dollar this is roughly 450 billion of today (see same GDP page as before). today gdp is 11000 billion so an estimated Irak total war cost of 500 billion is higher in percent of GDP (5% today compared to aforementionned 3%) and higher inflation adjusted.

Anyway there is a cost which is not really counted or accountable in vietnam war : the cost of the dead and veteran (human cost) the same for the Irak war. Ples the resulting international terrorism for vietnam war was zero (or at least I am not aware of it) whereas one can certainly argue this is relatively open for Irak war and could certainly rise. Finally I am not certain comparing TOTAL cost over many years to GDP is really that useful a comparison anyway. It should be comapred to say, day to day cost of education to day to day cost of the war in both case and see what comes out. I am too lazy to do it ;).

Firstly... has the AIM team just thrown in the towel on AIM for Mac?

In addition to iChat (which uses AIM), we have a new desktop suite for Mac, which includes a new AIM mac client: AOL Desktop for Mac. The Mac team at AOL's blog is here

Second... I've found the iPhone client to be horribly glitchy when you close the app without signing off. If messages are sent to me while it's closed, I just get blank messages upon reopening the client.

Yeah, we noticed that on the first day of release, too. There seems to be a difference between the developer OS build and the OS build that was sent out to consumers on Thurs/Fri. We're definitely looking into it. Do you get it every time you re-open the client? or sometimes you get it as blank and sometimes not?

Firstly... has the AIM team just thrown in the towel on AIM for Mac?

In addition to iChat (which uses AIM), we have a new desktop suite for Mac, which includes a new AIM mac client: AOL Desktop for Mac. The Mac team at AOL's blog is here

Second... I've found the iPhone client to be horribly glitchy when you close the app without signing off. If messages are sent to me while it's closed, I just get blank messages upon reopening the client.

Yeah, we noticed that on the first day of release, too. There seems to be a difference between the developer OS build and the OS build that was sent out to consumers on Thurs/Fri. We're definitely looking into it. Do you get it every time you re-open the client? or sometimes you get it as blank and sometimes not?

First we got the bomb and that was good, 'Cause we love peace and motherhood.

New math is the only way to go about solving some of these problems.

You mean like this?

I know martinw89 linked a page containing all of the links, but in case that was too confusing, I better link them again:

Article 1
Article 2
Article 3
Article 4
Article 5
Article 6
Article 7
Article 8
Article 9

Hope that helps

I use Windows firefox because I am on FreeBSD and there is no flash player for FreeBSD.

I was talking about the AOL online service client, not AOL instant messager. That is AOL 9.0.
http://daol.aol.com/software/90vr

I use Windows firefox because I am on FreeBSD and there is no flash player for FreeBSD.

It was Office 2003 that would not install right.

I was talking about the AOL online service client, not AOL instant messager. That is AOL 9.0.
http://daol.aol.com/software/90vr

Its still not acceptable that these programs should crash.

With all due respect Marshall, you're wrong about the beards.

(obscure reference here.)

The old computing merit badge was kind of fun just from the standpoint of how much it hadn't evolved over time. Most badges are just fine with a review once a decade or so, but when a kid is asked to use a modem to connect to Prodigy, it kind of reduces his options.

Too bad they don't have to still build a model of drum memory (from the 1967 requirements.) That would be cool.

Hmm. I wonder how many slashdotters could pass the old test? Especially these requirements:

8. Convert your full name to each of the following codes:

1. Hollerith
2. Binary-coded decimal
3. Eight channel standard code

and

11. Do the following:

1. Construct an analog adder and explain its operation
2. Construct a card reader, demonstrate it to your merit badge counselor, and explain to him the difference between the Hollerith card code and the internal machine code.

to quote Tom Lehrer on Von Braun;

"'Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down? That's not my department' Says Werner Von Brown" http://members.aol.com/quentncree/lehrer/vonbraun.htm

I got this catalog from a serious French retailer : http://www.selectronic.fr/upload/produit/pagecatalogue/4-07.pdf

It states : 12 candelas, 120 degrees. From an online converter I found, it amounts to 37 lumens.

I found this page : http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/lumen.htm which states that a typical 60 W light bulb emits between 600 and 900 lumens. So 20 of these LEDs would do it, and would cost 16 euros at this retailer (known to practice quite high prices)

A friend of mine was really interested into this stuff a few months ago. He told me that this technology is improving really quickly these years and that prices are falling at an incredible rate. Maybe the 100 dollars was a 2005 figure or something ? But to me, the DoE is funding something that will happen in the next two years by the sheer pressure of the market and will claim to be responsible for this evolution when it will reach the arbitrary point they chose. Wasted money if you ask me...

My mtDNA is T2 so I guess that means mom was descended from Vikings... The Vikings were raiding Ireland before AD 1000 and carrying out the most winsome lasses so I'd guess that's where some of the mtDNA came from. Ancient Celtic Warriors: Vikings and Irish at War Viking Settlemnent in Ireland