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They should remain persecuted: women's rights is bad for men.

http://mikeeusa.blogspot.com/

I hope women's rights dissapears from the entire world and is replaced by Men's liberties.

Put simply, if Comcast published a limit, it would destroy the myth that their service is unlimited -- a myth from which they still benefit immensely. They'd much rather take the PR hit of a few people complaining of cut-off's by claiming these people were "abusing" the service.

Perhaps but they are taking a bigger PR hit every month. Not to mention my blog has been slashdotted and digged a couple times, reporters are now calling me along with other's who have expressed an interest in speaking out to anybody who cares about the Internet and so on.

Cox Communications years ago used to pull this kind of stunt. That is until their customers forced the company to reveal it's limits.

Comcast can deceive people only so long before it comes back to bite them, just like it happened to Cox Communications.

The ISPs claim that the term "Unlimited" is described as meaning "Unlimited right of access", "always-on", "available 24/7"; as opposed to offers which limit the amount of hours you can be online.

They do now, not when I signed up along with my neighborhood 4 years ago.

I posted the link to archive.org on my blog which positively proves this. It was on Comcast's web site until a couple years ago apparently.

THE HILLARYCARE MYTHOLOGY: Suddenly, we're being told that Hillary wasn't behind Hillarycare -- it was all Bill's idea!

        The first lady was an active force in these discussions, but there was never any question that the president was in charge. We took our guidance from him. That, of course, was how it should have been (who else but the president ought to make such decisions?), except that many reporters and the public thought that Bill Clinton had handed over the policy to Hillary and that she would report back to him, which was not the case.

        Presidents often downplay their own direct involvement in decision making to put some distance between themselves and policies that may eventually prove to be unsuccessful. Part of the job of cabinet members and advisors is to take the blame when things go wrong. Clinton's appointment of his wife to chair the task force did not, however, create the necessary distance and deniability. Not only did the fiction of Hillary's personal responsibility for the health plan fail to protect the president at the time, it has also now come back to haunt her in her own quest for the presidency.

Well, you know, tangled webs and all that. (Via Newsalert).

UPDATE: This, on the other hand, is just weird.

Microsoft seems to use them too:

http://davidweiss.blogspot.com/2006/04/tour-of-microsofts-mac-lab.html

Sure it is their Mac labs, but to see 150 together is quite something.

The idea that religion is explained by people who never question what their parents have told them is silly. While I don't have statistics, most religious people I know, rejected the beliefs of their parents

Which explains the relative geographical stability of religious beliefs over ti..oh, wait, no. The other thing. Doesn't explain.

My explanation for atheists is that they have never been exposed to anything but the most simplistic religious thought, and are too anxious to feel intellectually superior to religious people to seriously investigate anything that isn't condoned by the scientific hierarchy and their peers.

A search for "deconversion" on Debunking Christianity yields several counterexamples:

I was a minister for over 25 years, very serious about thoughtful Christianity, a graduate of Emory University with undergrad study in psychology and grad study in religion/theology.

After graduating with my BA, I went off to Bob Jones University. There I earned a Masters and a Ph.D. in Theology. Whatever you want to say about BJU, and there is a lot to be said, they were in touch academically in a scholastic sense. Namely, the languages were greatly stressed. I passed language exams in Hebrew, Greek, and German in order to get my degree. I wrote a 326 page dissertation. During my time in Greenville, I taught an adult SS class and worked in other various ministries. Lest someone say my faith was only intellectual, let me add that I spent an average of one hour a day in prayer, memorized Scripture, I wept over "lost souls," and "won souls" for the Lord.

While at the Bible College I began to access theological, philosophical, and historical source material to which I had previously no access, I studied Greek and Hebrew, and took a wide range of religious classes...I started to read everything I could get my hands on (e.g., the Ante-Nicene Fathers, Old Testament pseudepigrapha, New Testament pseudonymous writings and apocrypha, the Nag Hammadi Codices, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Ugaritic Texts, the Amarna Letters, Philo of Alexandria, the Book of Enoch, Josephus, etc.), but always with the governing principle that "getting to the truth"...was of greater importance than my belief system, the narrow tenets of my faith

I began studying every theology, apologetics, and church history book I could find. I also began an interest in philosophy.

Within the span of my life as a Christian, I read just about anything worth reading (and not worth reading) in apologetics - aside from books that argued against theism and Christianity, probably about 120 or so books and who knows how many chapters and articles on philosophical, historical, and scientific apologetics, starting with McDowell and ending with Plantinga, Swinburne, and Alston...I used their arguments in papers for undergraduate philosophy courses. My dream was to study and get an MA in philosophy of religion and ethics under J.P. Moreland at Talbot...I was a member of the Society of Christian Philosophers and the Evangelical Philosophical Society, and read their journals (Faith and Philosophy and Philosophia Christi) religiously for several years. I would even spend many a beautiful day in musty library basements reading past issues of philosophy of religion journals.

I spent one semester studying at Jerusalem University College in Israel. I graduated this year at age 24 with a B.A. in Biblical Languages (Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic).

During the first year of my conversion, I read the bible through, bought perhaps 50 apologetic books and Christian evidence materials, and read them through nearly at the pace of one book per night...I began attending the Southwest School of Bible

Ok, went back to the original blog site, and found this post. In it, he takes a swipe at Google and the Claremont City Attorney, and then gives a blanked-out version of the pay stub scan: here.

The four sections on the pay stub are: Earnings, Leave, Deductions, Benefits. There's also a section at the top for employee name & number (not SSN), gross pay, net pay. That top section (name, gross pay, net pay) is certainly public information; the taxpayers of Claremont have the right to know what the public employees are being paid. The Earnings section is probably public information, not sure about Leave (technically, I think it's considered a Benefit, so not public), and Deductions & Benefits are definitely considered private information.

The city was right to take this down. Yes, if he got the scans via a search on their web site, it was a mistake for the search system to give it to him. But this is still private information that should not be shared. Game over.

"(and as a note: I don't download copyrighted material at all -- for the most part, it isn't worth it. I am just getting fed up with their have-their-cake-and-eat-it-too philosophy)"

Given up reading slashdot have you?

"All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the Poster."

Check the bottom of the pages....

I know what you are getting at, but if you use the net, with the laws as they currently stand, it is practically impossible to not download (in some fashion) copyrighted material. That is one of the big problems with the laws as they stand. Pretty much (with a few exception perhaps) everything that gets created and recorded is automatically copyrighted.

all the best,

drew

http://rukiddinmez.blogspot.com/
R U Kiddin Me?!?!?!

(except that they didn't get $$$ - but did they ever expect money in return for CC-NC content?)

My guess would be yes. If they used BY-NC-SA instead of BY-SA, it would possibly be because they do expect money is someone should make commercial use of the work.

I myself think NC makes for poor licenses, but none the less...

I personally prefer GPL and BY-SA though I am not fully happy with BY-Sa as it stands. (Not commenting on the GPL happiness at all.)

all the best,

drew

http://rukiddinmez.blogspot.com/
R U Kiddin Me?!?!?!

No personal information was released other than name, salary, and received benefits. This is just a local government that is embarrassed by their ridiculously high administrative salaries. See http://claremontca.blogspot.com/2007/09/labor-day_07.html .

Nice straw man, did you bother to actually look at what he scanned? There was no information about any of the things you mentioned(Except marital status, you could tell whether a girl was married by the Ms or Mrs.). All it had was a dollar amount of benefits given, Salary, and name.

See http://claremontca.blogspot.com/2007/09/labor-day_07.html

The anti-spam activists (yea yea) have been complaining about Ameritrade "leaking" Email addresses to spammers for a LOOOOOOONG time. I can't remember when the first time I heard about this, but a really quick Googling reveals July 2006 blog post...comments on it seemed to suggest it had already been going on for while before that date.

http://thespamdiaries.blogspot.com/2006/07/ameritrade-customer-email-lists-sold.html

You don't have to look far - this one is particularly damning, and I've seen evidence elsewhere that people set up an email address ONLY for Ameritrade and they've watched the spam come in.

This works by reflecting laser light between mirrors.
Amplification is achieved by the number of times light is reflected between the mirrors.
The best mirrors can achieve 100,000 reflections

I am curious as to why I am practically the only one who actually is providing information on how this actually works, yet I do not get any score boosts ? I guess it is because none of the modders can actually recognize correct answers.
I also had submitted articles with complete information on this back in February and the editors did not choose to publish more informative information.

Seriously just take a look at the information that I have assembled and presented with pictures and references.
Comments from Geoffrey Landis (Nasa guy who wrote a lot of seminal papers on laser propulsion.)
You can actually find out what this is about instead of just parsing a press release.
http://advancednano.blogspot.com/2007/02/photonic-laser-propulsion.html
http://advancednano.blogspot.com/2007/02/use-67-kilowatt-solid-state-lasers-for.html
http://advancednano.blogspot.com/2007/03/putting-brakes-on-laser-mirror-systems.html
The demo system used a 10 watt laser.
We can build 100 kw solid state lasers
10,000 times more powerful
We can build more than one laser and they can work in an array
We just need to power the lasers with electricity
There is an efficiency loss converting electricity to laser power
There are wavelengths that can easily go through the atmosphere (it is how we still see faint stars)
All of the laser pushed solar sail ideas can be made 100,000 times easier because of the reflections.
We can also use reduced laser size.

Please read the articles and you could actually have an informed discussion about what this is all about

Here is the link to the Geoffrey Landis (Nasa) and Robert Metzger paper on multi-bounce laser sails.
http://www.rametzger.com/nonfic-mblbs.htm

This works by reflecting laser light between mirrors.
Amplification is achieved by the number of times light is reflected between the mirrors.
The best mirrors can achieve 100,000 reflections

I am curious as to why I am practically the only one who actually is providing information on how this actually works, yet I do not get any score boosts ? I guess it is because none of the modders can actually recognize correct answers.
I also had submitted articles with complete information on this back in February and the editors did not choose to publish more informative information.

Seriously just take a look at the information that I have assembled and presented with pictures and references.
Comments from Geoffrey Landis (Nasa guy who wrote a lot of seminal papers on laser propulsion.)
You can actually find out what this is about instead of just parsing a press release.
http://advancednano.blogspot.com/2007/02/photonic-laser-propulsion.html
http://advancednano.blogspot.com/2007/02/use-67-kilowatt-solid-state-lasers-for.html
http://advancednano.blogspot.com/2007/03/putting-brakes-on-laser-mirror-systems.html
The demo system used a 10 watt laser.
We can build 100 kw solid state lasers
10,000 times more powerful
We can build more than one laser and they can work in an array
We just need to power the lasers with electricity
There is an efficiency loss converting electricity to laser power
There are wavelengths that can easily go through the atmosphere (it is how we still see faint stars)
All of the laser pushed solar sail ideas can be made 100,000 times easier because of the reflections.
We can also use reduced laser size.

Please read the articles and you could actually have an informed discussion about what this is all about

Here is the link to the Geoffrey Landis (Nasa) and Robert Metzger paper on multi-bounce laser sails.
http://www.rametzger.com/nonfic-mblbs.htm

This works by reflecting laser light between mirrors.
Amplification is achieved by the number of times light is reflected between the mirrors.
The best mirrors can achieve 100,000 reflections

I am curious as to why I am practically the only one who actually is providing information on how this actually works, yet I do not get any score boosts ? I guess it is because none of the modders can actually recognize correct answers.
I also had submitted articles with complete information on this back in February and the editors did not choose to publish more informative information.

Seriously just take a look at the information that I have assembled and presented with pictures and references.
Comments from Geoffrey Landis (Nasa guy who wrote a lot of seminal papers on laser propulsion.)
You can actually find out what this is about instead of just parsing a press release.
http://advancednano.blogspot.com/2007/02/photonic-laser-propulsion.html
http://advancednano.blogspot.com/2007/02/use-67-kilowatt-solid-state-lasers-for.html
http://advancednano.blogspot.com/2007/03/putting-brakes-on-laser-mirror-systems.html
The demo system used a 10 watt laser.
We can build 100 kw solid state lasers
10,000 times more powerful
We can build more than one laser and they can work in an array
We just need to power the lasers with electricity
There is an efficiency loss converting electricity to laser power
There are wavelengths that can easily go through the atmosphere (it is how we still see faint stars)
All of the laser pushed solar sail ideas can be made 100,000 times easier because of the reflections.
We can also use reduced laser size.

Please read the articles and you could actually have an informed discussion about what this is all about

Here is the link to the Geoffrey Landis (Nasa) and Robert Metzger paper on multi-bounce laser sails.
http://www.rametzger.com/nonfic-mblbs.htm

How to scale up 3.3 billion times.
The original demo was from 10 watt lasers and 3,000 reflections
It is good to actually research original papers to know what is being discussed, so we know what is being scaled.
It is theoretically possible to achieve 100,000 reflections (you may have to go outside the atmosphere to ensure less losses of energy (ie like from a lunar launch system)
We will soon be making 100 Kilowatt solid state lasers. (US military made 67 kw earlier this year and will have 100 kw system done later this year or early next year.
We can use arrays of lasers
(ie more than one). Power is provided in electrical form to the lasers. Say from nuclear power (3.2 GW twin reactors, and can have more reactors) or hydro power (Three gorges dam generates 18 GW). So wattage can go up say 100 million times to 1GW. (reduced the nuclear plant power by inefficiencies of converting electricity to laser power.)
The reflections can increase by 33 times.
Therefore, 3.3 billion times more power.

Thus you can send several ton vehicle to Mars at high speed http://advancednano.blogspot.com/2007/02/use-67-kilowatt-solid-state-lasers-for.html

electricity powers the lasers. The efficiency is boosted by mirrored reflections.
http://advancednano.blogspot.com/2007/02/photonic-laser-propulsion.html

How to scale up.
The original demo was from 10 watt lasers and 3,000 reflections (it is good to actually research original papers to know what is being discussed.)
It is theoretically possible to achieve 100,000 reflections (you may have to go outside the atmosphere to ensure less losses of energy (ie like from a lunar launch system
We will soon be making 100 Kilowatt solid state lasers. (US military made 67 kw earlier this year and will have 100 kw system done later this year or early next year.
We can use arrays of lasers
(ie more than one). Power is provided in electrical form to the lasers. Say from nuclear power (3.2 GW twin reactors, and can have more reactors) or hydro power (Three gorges dam generates 18 GW). So wattage can go up say 100 million times to 1GW. (reduced the nuclear plant power by inefficiencies for the lasers.
the reflections can increase by 33 times.
Therefore, 3.3 billion times more power.

Thus you can send several ton vehicle to Mars at high speed
http://advancednano.blogspot.com/2007/02/use-67-kilowatt-solid-state-lasers-for.html

This is interesting that you do not research the scientific papers to determine that this is BS.
This is a variation on laser pushed sails. Geoffrey Landis believes that it can work, it is just a question of how well.

http://advancednano.blogspot.com/2007/02/photonic-laser-propulsion.html
Geoffrey said... Depends on how technologically optimistic you want to be-- I'm a little dubious about keeping beam quality up, and of course for a large number of reflections even a small deviation from perfect reflectivity destroys the concept. Robert Metzger [they wrote a paper on laser bounced sails], on the other hand, is a bit more of a technological optimist, and thinks it's reasonable, and he's a really smart guy.

I don't know if you've seen this one:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070213101025.htm

Source: University of California - Berkeley
Date: February 25, 2007
Researchers Create New Super-thin Laser Mirror But it might be a reasonable approach.

Acceleration depends upon the scale of the system.
If you are using tiny lasers and a large ship then you are getting tiny acceleration.
The micronewtons system is just for positioning satellites relative to each other with nanometer precision
This is great for a telescope array

If you have an array of millions of 100 kilowatt lasers then you are generating significant force. This could provide high acceleration for a very light mirrored sail.
http://advancednano.blogspot.com/2007/02/use-67-kilowatt-solid-state-lasers-for.html

Just turning around does not work. You are being pushed by a laser from a remote source.
You either have to first deploy the receiving laser array and power system.
Or bring an alternative drive for breaking.

Here is my desciption of how to perform this in more detail
http://advancednano.blogspot.com/2007/03/putting-brakes-on-laser-mirror-systems.html

What do you mean by "Oh, wait..."? Please explain.

Warrantless wiretaps. Declaring people as 'enemy combatants' to avoid those pesky Geneva Conventions as well as any kind of rights by declaring them non-persons and holding them for years without trial or even access to legal counsel. Declaring the Constitution of the United States to be just a 'goddamned piece of paper'. These and other things just show that the NeoCons really don't care about the legality, morality, or constitutionality of any of their actions, and just want to hold onto their power to the last instant.

We won't even go into one nutjob's plan for the 'Perfect World'. Course, he's one of these nutjobs as well. Thing about them is, while I'm perfectly content to let them make their noises on the Far Far Far Far Right, they would send me to Gitmo in a San Yubi second for the noises I make. Guess that 'free speech' thing only applies to people that talk like they do...

Outline of how to win the prize using potentially less than the prize money [PICS] [Links to reference papers details]
1. $10 million to get to orbit with a Dnepr rocket. (rules do not say build your rocket)
2. Use low energy transfer from earth orbit to lunar orbit (Done in 1993 by Japan's Hiten satellite)
3. Make and use a more powerful than Armidillo Aerospace lunar lander.
Would be far smaller than the 10 ton LEM descent module.
do not need to carry astronauts or 5 ton ascent vehicle
4. Make a small MArs sojourner size rover (11kg)

Six months ago I had a series of articles that described scaling this up and putting on the breaks and using laser arrays to replace the massive lasers we do not have yet. A pity that more informative articles was less slashdotable than a less detailed press release, but you can see what you were missing now and get answers to questions. I also referenced and corresponded with Geoffrey Landis one of the giants of laser propulsion. I had described how the demo system can be scaled up The demo system used 10 watt lasers. We are completing 100 kw solid state lasers now. We can use arrays of lasers. I have the information on the rapid trip to Mars Putting breaks on the system is something that I have worked out as well You either carry a drive to provide breaking power or you pre-launch the laser array to your destination via a probably slower method. The receiving laser array and power system would then slow you down. The system is a way to achieve the laser pushed sail concepts designed for sending ships and probes to other stars or around the solar system. However, we can use systems that are up to 100,000 times more efficient. Note: laser diode ineffiencies int he 20-80% range mean that the power source has to be a certain amount larger than the laser power needed.

Six months ago I had a series of articles that described scaling this up and putting on the breaks and using laser arrays to replace the massive lasers we do not have yet. A pity that more informative articles was less slashdotable than a less detailed press release, but you can see what you were missing now and get answers to questions. I also referenced and corresponded with Geoffrey Landis one of the giants of laser propulsion. I had described how the demo system can be scaled up The demo system used 10 watt lasers. We are completing 100 kw solid state lasers now. We can use arrays of lasers. I have the information on the rapid trip to Mars Putting breaks on the system is something that I have worked out as well You either carry a drive to provide breaking power or you pre-launch the laser array to your destination via a probably slower method. The receiving laser array and power system would then slow you down. The system is a way to achieve the laser pushed sail concepts designed for sending ships and probes to other stars or around the solar system. However, we can use systems that are up to 100,000 times more efficient. Note: laser diode ineffiencies int he 20-80% range mean that the power source has to be a certain amount larger than the laser power needed.

Six months ago I had a series of articles that described scaling this up and putting on the breaks and using laser arrays to replace the massive lasers we do not have yet. A pity that more informative articles was less slashdotable than a less detailed press release, but you can see what you were missing now and get answers to questions. I also referenced and corresponded with Geoffrey Landis one of the giants of laser propulsion. I had described how the demo system can be scaled up The demo system used 10 watt lasers. We are completing 100 kw solid state lasers now. We can use arrays of lasers. I have the information on the rapid trip to Mars Putting breaks on the system is something that I have worked out as well You either carry a drive to provide breaking power or you pre-launch the laser array to your destination via a probably slower method. The receiving laser array and power system would then slow you down. The system is a way to achieve the laser pushed sail concepts designed for sending ships and probes to other stars or around the solar system. However, we can use systems that are up to 100,000 times more efficient. Note: laser diode ineffiencies int he 20-80% range mean that the power source has to be a certain amount larger than the laser power needed.

While Comcast's recent actions threaten to stifle innovation in this space, Netflix and Amazon Unbox will eventually win. Not to mention YouTube. What is interesting is that related industries such as video search engines and content producers like this will flourish.

I'd like to see some statistics on how many people upload videos vs. how many download/watch them.

I appreciate someone recognizing how serious this is becoming. While not a problem such as world hunger or wars, it's not like this is a non issue either.

I wouldn't mind seeing some statistics myself. I'll look around and post it on my blog should I find any. Companies like Comcast essentially harm our progress while other countries are moving ahead of America. This is why I've been focusing my blog more towards those issues instead of always posting about Comcast's lunacy and arrogance. Here in West Jordan we're making progress with bringing Utopia to the masses. The City Council and Mayor I've learned are big impediments and don't understand why services like Utopia are needed for our economic growth. Pity, and I was getting to like them. We're looking to go with a petition and perhaps force the issue with a ballot vote if it comes down to it. Hell, maybe even replace them. It may come down to that.

It's interesting to see just how big online video and other multimedia services are getting. And that scares the crap out of companies like Comcast.

No, that's what he meant to say. There's a fairly widely publicized case of a man having quite a bit of trouble getting Verizon reps to understand and admit the difference between .002 cents and .002 dollars.

Look at http://verizonmath.blogspot.com/

You do realize that 15nm is .015 microns, right?

Not necessarily. Maybe he works at Verizon.

>>> "Most of the eye candy doesn't eat too much CPU...."

I agree 100%. I've been running the Compiz with heaps of features turned on, on my old machine which is a Athlon 1.9GHZ with 512 RAM and a GForce MX-440 graphics card. (see full specs here (see PC called Number2))

While the specs for my 'number2' machine are pretty good compared to what some people are running Linux on, there probably at the lower end of what 'the average Ubuntu user' has, or at least what is being sold with Ubuntu pre-installed.

I read a good review of Ubuntu a few weeks ago in a British PC Mag, and they'd compared the UI to Win-95. I think this was a little unfair seeing as it is so customizable. With Compiz enabled by default it might encourage those shallow Vista Fanboy reviewers that focus on the 'glossy', to actually give Ubuntu the praise it deserves...

Personally, I think it was a good move and puts Ubuntu that much closer to playing with the big-boys in the home desktop arena. I mean, if you're after glossy on your home PC, why pay for Vista when you can get Ubuntu for free?

Actually the FBI and the CIA had a pretty good idea who the suspected terrorists were (this was part of the investigation of the Cole bombing). The CIA had bugged some of their conversations while they were in the Philippines (I think). Unfortunately the CIA did not tell the FBI that some of those suspected terrorists were in the US. If they did FBI would have no problems obtaining proper warrants.

This is all described in the book "The Looming Tower" - I strongly recomend it. Even though the end is heartbreaking.

In my final comments in my review of Bully's first hour I note that this is what the Harry Potter games should be like. I actually played through all of Bully and thoroughly enjoyed it, only imagining it being better if I was some random kid at Hogwarts learning magic and throwing Weasley invented stuff at first years.

Hehe... They say it's environmentally friendly. That is of course, if your environment is not within a mile or two of the blast zone. http://parthian-shot.blogspot.com/

Do, what you love to do -- and get to be really good at it, and you'll earn a lot.

Hmm... I've followed this advice for years but as of yet have not earned much from watching porn and jerking off. I'll keep at it, though!

Unless they're in the closet about it.

It's not [directly] the GPL that's causing me to eventually give FreeBSD a go instead of Debian on my servers - it's FreeBSD's [in-progress] support for ZFS. There might be an awful lot of hype about it, but ZFS seems like a really nice thing for a homebrew SAN.

Of course, licensing issues are the reason why ZFS won't be in the Linux kernel anytime soon.

ZFS on FUSE - and, indeed, FUSE in general - is neat, but not something I'd want to rely upon in a server environment.

This story about mandatory keyloggers for cyber cafes has not been confirmed by the Mumbai police. It is an initiative by an organization called the Foundation for Information Security & Technology in Mumbai. There is however a large section of people in India who are willing to go along with this proposal if it helps prevent them getting blown up to bits by terrorist bombs. This article, for example, reflects the mindset http://privatesoliloquy.blogspot.com/2007/09/keyloggers-in-indian-cyber-cafs-scare.html

Nice play at taqiyya. It is the very core of Islam to spread its ideology through any means necessary, as dictated by it's "prophet".

If you want to really learn what Islam teaches, don't waste your time listening to the appologists for the religion. Research the issue yourself. Read the Koran. Yes thats right, the Koran.

Google some of the more unspoken terms like, taqiyya, Dhimmi, Dawa. Understand the meaning of prayer of Salat one of the five pillars of Islam.

"Righteousness is not turning your faces towards the east or the west. Righteous are those who believe in GOD, the Last Day, the angels, the scripture, and the prophets; "

Know that this prayer recognizes that:

"The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say. 'O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him.'" Bukhari Vol. 4, Book 52, Num. 177 also 179 and 180.

That by religious obligation, every Muslim must be an anti-Semite and hate the Jews.

For more information, go check out Jihad Watch Urban Infidel, or Little Green Footballs

If we limit the scope to just college students, the research may still have some explanatory power. I've had the impression over the years that the smartest conservatives used to be liberals. If we consider that liberals may consider a broader range of possibilities and are more liable to change their minds, then it is not to surprising that some would end up adopting conservative positions when they are exposed to them at school. On the other hand, conservatives, who are stuck in a rut, are simply holding onto older liberal positions such as the idea that tyrants are are bad that are no longer contoversial. Their exposure to ideas in school can have little traction. They won't often notice when an idea is in conflict with their beliefs. So, the heart of the conservative intellectual ferment is supported by the conversion of liberals who find older liberal ideas more congenial than new liberal ideas. They have the strength of thier convictions rather than just the force of habit and thus exert greater influence on the foundations of conservatism. But, since the foundations of conservatism are fundementally inertia, that influence is likely to be small though they may discover broader justification for the older liberal concepts than these had initially.
--
Rethink solar: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users-selling-solar.html

Microsoft XML's is designed for vendor lock in, not for interoperability! Its ridiculous backward compatibility tags are well known by now. Its non-interoperability with existing standards and its inherent fragility, so that simple changes to the document break the content and/or the package, make it a non contender for a viable document format. De Icaza calling this shit a superb standard is newsworthy because he outed himself as a 100% pure Microsoft shill. His previous efforts on open source platforms no longer deserve any benefit of doubt.

It was reported here in Slashdot that Stephane Rodriguez made some really nice tests to the OOXML format. It is quite an interseting read.

"it could be argued that's a deficiency in the Office implementation of the format, not the format itself."

Doesn't matter. MS will be viewed as the "standard" and if a file won't load then the file will be blamed, not Microsoft.

The whole point of XML is to be human readable and editable with a simple text editor. It seems that if you try to edit Excel worksheets by hand then Excel will refuse to load them.

The link:

http://ooxmlisdefectivebydesign.blogspot.com/2007/08/microsoft-office-xml-formats-defective.html