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There is a touch irony here. The major justification for non-socialized medicine like that in the United States is that private enterprise will provide the economic rewards which will spur innovation in developing new drugs. However, what happens when the capitalistic system does not provide the necessary rewards?

Such is the case with new antibiotics. Typically, patients take antibiotics for a week and never consume the stuff again until the next infection arises. By contrast, drugs treating chronic conditions like excessive cholesterol are consumed daily and hence provide signficant financial rewards. As a result, American companies have abandoned the development of new antibiotics in favor of drugs treating chronic conditions.

What is the point of using superbugs in the soil to test the efficacy of new antibiotics when Americans companies are not developing new antibiotics?

Then again, in the end, we are all dead.

How about you start by looking at the department of labor statistics for current employment trends for January 2006 (here).

The unemployment rates for adult men (4.3 percent), adult women (4.5 per-cent), whites (4.3 percent), and Hispanics or Latinos (6.0 percent) showed little or no change in December. The jobless rates for teenagers (15.2 per-cent) and blacks (9.3 percent) declined over the month; the rate for black teenagers had an unusual large decline and fell to 24.4 percent. The unemployment rate for Asians was 3.8 percent, not seasonally adjusted.

Clearly I was wrong. Blacks and whites are discriminated against in favor of Asians. On the other hand, most Asians I've known have either been hard workers or intelligent or both, while I've known plenty of lazy and stupid black and white people. Also note that while the unemployment rate among blacks is over twice that of whites, large numbers of those are in the inner cities which have poor economies and are losing jobs at much higher rates than the national average (Heres an associated press newspaper story since you're so keen on them).

So lets take the inner city out of the equation by looking at the geographical and skill data (here). Conclusions? I would say things aren't far off when the statistical margin of error is taken into consideration. And further its obvious those in the more highly skilled professions have much lower unemployment rates, regardless of race.

And this was just in 10 minutes. Research grasshopper. I stopped believing stats from newspapers when they started quoting blogs as informational sources on a regular basis. Just because they get it right 99% of the time doesn't mean I'm going to trust them 100%,especially when my life experience has taught me otherwise.

Yes, as it happens, both you and your source (Wikipedia) are wrong. Wikipedia is great but don't mistake it for authoritative.

Here is a discussion from December '04, eight months before Katrina, observing the shortfall in Saudi light crude deliveries and the subsequent effect on the spread between Arab light and heavy grades:

http://www.mcdep.com/MR41228.pdf

So the phenomenon that Wikipedia associates with Katrina was about a year old at the time. That is actually more worrisome in terms of peak oil, since Gulf of Mexico rigs can be repaired but it's not clear whether the Saudis can materially increase their light crude production.

On Sunday, September 18, 2005, two weeks after Katrina, Saudi Arabian oil minister Ali al-Naimi told reporters that they had 1.5 million barrels per day of spare capacity and "absolutely no" demand for it. Of course the surplus capacity was Arab heavy grade.

http://www.finfacts.com/irelandbusinessnews/publis h/printer_10003311.shtml

A few days earlier the Saudi crown prince was quoted as follows:

"The current rise in oil prices does not stem from a shortage in crude oil supplies but is due to, as everyone knows, to increased demand for products and a shortage in refining capacity"

http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/200 5/09/15/oil_over_65_us_stock_dip_stirs_worry?mode= PF

Since there is more than enough supply of heavy crude in the market, the reason Katrina caused a price spike was its effect on refining capacity and infrastructure, not on production.

Martin

ah here a great human error story. House gets blow up because they connected the wrong gas line. Home in Lexington explodes. If a company that has the maps of all of its own gas lines can do this. Think of the possibilities when DHS tries to classify the listing of all the fiber optic in the US

What Engage In-Game is doing is no more illegal than someone hosting a custom mod on their server. This particular mod just happens to show pictures of brand-name sandwiches with a price tag. Bandwidth and server resources aren't free, and if this is how Engage In-Game is going to support keeping their servers online for free public use, they can stick advertisements on the virtual game walls. Would you rather they use bots that spam in-game chat every 5 minutes with text ads? The ads are far from intrusive, and if you don't like them, don't play on their servers.

Now, if Engage In-Game was paying players to go to other people's servers to spray and spam advertisements everywhere, that's going over the line because then they'd be intruding on OTHER people's servers.

As we watch the the world vanish, we should ask ourselfs why... Some may consider how will we explain are doing nothing?

As I share this with the slashdot crowd. . . . . I think to myself (outloud)
Maybe this post will inspire someone to write a letter. (to a political leader)
or. . . .Perhpas this article will inspire someone to write more poetry. (and make me fell better)
Unlikly but. . . it may inspire me to stop posting on slashdot. (which could only be better)
or. . . .possibly I have made a lasting contribution to poetry. (forever)

Conclusion : this article has not improved my poetry :(

Others opinions? RE Article : please no comments on my poetry- unless you would like to sign up for fan club mailing list.

PS : origional post was aborted by the lamness filter (had to make modifactions - even slashdot AI, hates my poetry - honestly it was better.) I for one do not welcome our new AI lameness filter overloads)

Related Article : E-Waste

about their employees, outside the highest levels of management, what makes you think they'd give a flip about their customers?

That being said, here's proof that not all C students become president.

Can you publish politically dissenting views?

Not if you want to keep your job

Can you openly criticize the government?

nope

Are you allowed to practice any religion you want without punitive recourse?

My (non)religious views allow abortion, gay/group marriage, assisted suicide and stem cell therapy. I hear some folks are being prosecuted or assaulted for trying to do these things.

Are you executed for being in possession of mind-altering drugs?

Killing someone is not the only way to destroy a life. A lengthy prison term and/or prison rape will do.

Can you freely travel to most parts of the world?

Sure, that's because most parts of the world, including China, make it easier to get a visa than US.

Can you read any publication in print or the web without gettign thrown in prison?

You got to be kidding!

What can be done to fix http://overdrive.bpl.org/
for our Boston Public Libraries' Mac users?...

Here's the article by Hiawatha Bray http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/12 /30/library_audiobooks_now_just_a_few_mouse_clicks _away/?page=full

So the RIAA bullied a little girl? Unthinkable. They would NEVER, ever EVER do something so... okay so they do.

Apparently the main outrage comes from ICAAN reassigning control of the little used .iq Iraq domain from two Palestinian immiagrants living in the US, currently in jail after being convicted on a variety of charges resulting from their supporting terrorists organizations, and giving control to the Iraqi government (which just had an electionwith unexpected support). This seemed to have fairly strong support on Slashdot just a few months ago. It was viewed as a positive thing in Iraq.

I'm finding it difficult to get worked up about this.

Cookies are easy to delete. This is hardly a "Your Rights Online" issue. Jeez

Right. You'll hear that story but the story, "Student confesses to fabricating US surveillance story [Mao's "Little Red Book"] will never be posted by the slashdot editors.

I guess they're part of the "fake but accurate" crowd.

Yes it is a hoax because the student admitted to making it up......

http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articl es/2005/12/24/students_tall_tale_revealed/

"An unnamed Dartmouth student was visited by Homeland Security for requesting a copy of Mao Zedong's Little Red Book for a class project." From the article: "The student, who was completing a research paper on Communism for Professor Pontbriand's class on fascism and totalitarianism, filled out a form for the request, leaving his name, address, phone number and Social Security number. He was later visited at his parents' home in New Bedford by two agents of the Department of Homeland Security, the professors said."

when, it turns out,

"The University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth student who claimed he had been visited by agents of the Department of Homeland Security for requesting a book written by Mao Zedung through interlibrary loan has confessed to making up the story. The unnamed senior tearfully admitted to the hoax after UMD history professor Brian Glyn Williams confronted him with inconsistencies in his story at his parents' home December 23, the New Bedford Standard-Times reported December 24."

Student's tall tale revealed

ALL NEWSPAPERS SUCK...AT LEAST ONLINE NEWSPAPERS ARE MORE OBJECTIVE, OPEN, AND LESS EFFECTED BY IDIOTIC DWEEBS WITH $....AND AT LEAST ONLINE NEWSPAPERS DO NOT SMELL LIKE DEAD TREE AND SKINK INK...

http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articl es/2005/12/24/students_tall_tale_revealed/

Confesses fabricating US surveillance story

By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff | December 24, 2005

It rocketed across the Internet a week ago, a startling newspaper report that agents from the US Department of Homeland Security had visited a student at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth at his New Bedford home simply because he had tried to borrow Mao Tse-Tung's ''Little Red Book" for a history seminar on totalitarian goverments.

The story, first reported in last Saturday's New Bedford Standard-Times, was picked up by other news organizations, prompted diatribes on left-wing and right-wing blogs, and even turned up in an op-ed piece written by Senator Edward M. Kennedy in the Globe.

But yesterday, the student confessed that he had made it up after being confronted by the professor who had repeated the story to a Standard-Times reporter.

The professor, Brian Glyn Williams, said he went to his former student's house and asked about inconsistencies in his story. The 22-year-old student admitted it was a hoax, Williams said.

''I made it up," the professor recalled him saying. ''I'm sorry. . . . I'm so relieved that it's over."

The student was not identified in any reports. The Globe interviewed him Thursday but decided not to write a story about his assertion, because of doubts about its veracity. The student could not be reached yesterday.

Williams said the student gave no explanation. But Williams, who praised the student as hard-working and likeable, said he was shaken by the deception.

''I feel as if I was lied to, and I have no idea why," said Williams, an associate professor of Islamic history. He said the possibility the government was scrutinizing books borrowed by his students ''disturbed me tremendously."

The story stems from an incident in the fall in a history seminar on totalitarianism and fascism taught by a colleague of Williams, Robert Pontbriand. The student, who was in the seminar, told Pontbriand he had requested an unabridged copy of ''Quotations From Chairman Mao Tse-Tung" through the UMass interlibrary loan system for a research paper.

Days later, he told Pontbriand, he was stunned to get a visit by Homeland Security agents who told him the book was on a ''watch list" and asked why he wanted it. Pontbriand was appalled. ''A university is a place for the open inquiry for the truth," he said.

The story quickly made its way around the history department, and it might have stayed on campus if The New York Times had not broken a story about President Bush's approval of a controversial domestic spying program.

After that story, a Standard-Times reporter called Williams, who has traveled to Afghanistan for research, to ask whether he was concerned about government surveillance, Williams said.

As an afterthought, Williams said, he told the reporter about the alleged visit by the Homeland Security agents, and that became the lead of the Dec. 17 Standard-Times story.

John Hoey, spokesman for UMass-Dartmouth, said the university did not expect to take any action against the student. ''This was a conversation that took place between a student and his faculty members," Hoey said.

Dan Rosenfeld, managing editor of the newspaper, declined to comment yesterday, saying that the paper considered it a ''competitive newspaper story."

The university issued a statement Monday defending academic freedom, but said it had had no visits from Homeland Security agents and no record of any student seeking the Mao book through an interlibrary loan.

The headline of the first story is Romney administration reviewing trips made by technology chief.

The headline of the second story is Review backs trips by technology chief with a sub-headline of "No conflict found for aide."

I suspect that the first story would have been clearer if Eric Kriss, Peter J. Quinn's former supervisor, had returned the Globe's phone calls. The second article makes it clear that Peter J. Quinn was acting on bad advice from Eric Kriss.

This seems like a typical case of Massachusetts politics. I'm a bit surprised at the thought that the Globe articles had anything to do with Peter J. Quinn's decision to resign.

Finally, there are no stories about Peter J. Quinn's resignation posted at either the New York Times web site or the Boston Globe web site. It will be interesting to see the Globe coverage when it appears.

The headline of the first story is Romney administration reviewing trips made by technology chief.

The headline of the second story is Review backs trips by technology chief with a sub-headline of "No conflict found for aide."

I suspect that the first story would have been clearer if Eric Kriss, Peter J. Quinn's former supervisor, had returned the Globe's phone calls. The second article makes it clear that Peter J. Quinn was acting on bad advice from Eric Kriss.

This seems like a typical case of Massachusetts politics. I'm a bit surprised at the thought that the Globe articles had anything to do with Peter J. Quinn's decision to resign.

Finally, there are no stories about Peter J. Quinn's resignation posted at either the New York Times web site or the Boston Globe web site. It will be interesting to see the Globe coverage when it appears.

I agree with everything you've said, except you need an update on the article you posted: http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/12/ 24/students_tall_tale_revealed/ The kid made it up. It was all a hoax.

Boston Globe is reporting:

http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articl es/2005/12/24/students_tall_tale_revealed/

"It rocketed across the Internet a week ago, a startling newspaper report that agents from the US Department of Homeland Security had visited a student at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth at his New Bedford home simply because he had tried to borrow Mao Tse-Tung's ''Little Red Book" for a history seminar on totalitarian goverments."

> It's even creepier when DHS agents bang on people's doors who aren't doing anything wrong.

You wouldn't be thinking of this story , would you?
Guess what, that story is a hoax.

Trust me, though, I'm as creeped out by the Bush administration as you are.

The professor, Brian Glyn Williams, said he went to his former student's house and asked about inconsistencies in his story. The 22-year-old student admitted it was a hoax, Williams said. ''I made it up," the professor recalled him saying. ''I'm sorry. . . . I'm so relieved that it's over." The student was not identified in any reports. The Globe interviewed him Thursday but decided not to write a story about his assertion, because of doubts about its veracity. The student could not be reached yesterday. Williams said the student gave no explanation. But Williams, who praised the student as hard-working and likeable, said he was shaken by the deception."

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/artic les/2005/12/09/house_approves_561b_cut_in_taxes/

From the above article: "They cut vital programs and services that benefit hard-working lower- and middle-income Americans, and with the money saved, are giving more tax cuts to the wealthiest of the wealthy."

From the ZDNet article:
"...Sen. Mike Enzi, a Wyoming Republican. "This is costing states and localities billions in lost revenue."

So the Senators think they shouldn't tax the rich, but its okay when it is everyone else.
Anyone think that this is unfair? Or is this okay with you?

Good questions, but maybe the fact they'd even be asked sheds some light on the (possible) answers?

An AP article, Allegations of fake research hit new high, circulated this summer detailing the misconduct of Dr. Andrew Friedman (and attributing it to stress). In late October, Luk Van Parijs was fired over research fraud. More doubts raised on fired MIT professor:

It is not unusual to see cases of fraud involving data that are tangential to the main point of a research paper, as is alleged in some of Van Parijs's work, according to C.K. Gunsalus, a special counsel at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and specialist on research integrity.

''It is very common, and there is also a common defense, which is 'I have a PhD and I wouldn't have done something so stupid,' " said Gunsalus. Often, she said, this defense is successful. She also said that it was common to see a pattern of escalation, with small infractions building over time to larger ones.

So it would seem that these individuals start out with "mild" cheating -- rationalizing, perhaps, that it saves time without any "real" harm to the research. Getting away with that would then make subsequent cheating more attractive and more easily rationalized. Maybe it is the "inability to handle that pressure [to publish]" that precipitates the actual misconduct, but I suspect the dishonesty is there from the start, including the self-deception that it isn't significant or that he won't be caught.

I don't know if that applies to Dr. Hwang, but I think greater scrutiny is in order all around. As faking research, even minor details, is itself irrational, that the perceived benefit would be irrational shouldn't suffice to dismiss the allegations (assuming there is some basis for the allegations). But accepting the "common defense" cited above would be an example of doing just that.

Good questions, but maybe the fact they'd even be asked sheds some light on the (possible) answers?

An AP article, Allegations of fake research hit new high, circulated this summer detailing the misconduct of Dr. Andrew Friedman (and attributing it to stress). In late October, Luk Van Parijs was fired over research fraud. More doubts raised on fired MIT professor:

It is not unusual to see cases of fraud involving data that are tangential to the main point of a research paper, as is alleged in some of Van Parijs's work, according to C.K. Gunsalus, a special counsel at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and specialist on research integrity.

''It is very common, and there is also a common defense, which is 'I have a PhD and I wouldn't have done something so stupid,' " said Gunsalus. Often, she said, this defense is successful. She also said that it was common to see a pattern of escalation, with small infractions building over time to larger ones.

So it would seem that these individuals start out with "mild" cheating -- rationalizing, perhaps, that it saves time without any "real" harm to the research. Getting away with that would then make subsequent cheating more attractive and more easily rationalized. Maybe it is the "inability to handle that pressure [to publish]" that precipitates the actual misconduct, but I suspect the dishonesty is there from the start, including the self-deception that it isn't significant or that he won't be caught.

I don't know if that applies to Dr. Hwang, but I think greater scrutiny is in order all around. As faking research, even minor details, is itself irrational, that the perceived benefit would be irrational shouldn't suffice to dismiss the allegations (assuming there is some basis for the allegations). But accepting the "common defense" cited above would be an example of doing just that.

Or http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/artic le/2005/12/13/AR2005121302007.html

or

http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/200 5/12/02/in_china_nuns_reported_beaten_protecting_l and_from_developer/

Absolutely. Suitepotato, you just said the most blessed thing ever:

They are fellow humans, the people of China. They deserve better than that gang of thugs in power. I wish them luck in outlasting their predecessors' mistake in choosing to empower those creeps

Hear hear!

"This is in reference to the article at http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles /2005/12/13/telecoms_want_their_products_to_travel _on_a_faster_internet/. I sent you an email previously on this topic, with tracking number 4388420. While I think that telecoms such as yourself should have the right to run their business as they please, I think it is very unfortunate that you think so little of your customers. As I stated in a previous email, I own my leased bandwidth at the price of $40.00 per month, and I expect to be able to access any services I please without you charging the service provider. It's my bandwidth, not yours. I am looking forward to terminating my business with you when my contract expires in nine months. Charter cable will be a welcome change."
(End of Email)

I believe Telecoms should have the freedom to make this happen. It is their company and their phone lines, after all. However, SBC customers, as members of a free market, should recognize that this decision by SBC is a slap in the face. I wonder how long SBC would run their 2-tier network if every content provider on the internet refused to serve SBC customers? SBC would reverse their decision so fast, it would make your head spin. Too bad I'm stuck on my contract for a while.

So what you're saying is that because we use a closed format today we should use it tomorrow.

Um, no. What he's saying is that the PEOPLE should decide what format they use, not some asshole in an appointed position who the people never elected or chose. Why the hell should I be forced to use something as terrible as OpenOffice soley to read government documentation?!

Most people use Microsoft Office. It would make sense that the government would therefore support what the PEOPLE use. If you want to use OpenOffice, that's fine, because you'll note that it can read and save Microsoft Office documents.

There is simply no justification for forcing people to use some random open standard that no one has ever heard of before. If I'm going to work with government documents, I'd like it to be in the format that I chose, not the format that a random APPOINTED INDIVIDUAL decided would be "best" for me.

The government is SUPPOSED to be there to support the will of the PEOPLE, not the will of an individual appointed asshole.

"There was a big scandal in Boston not too long ago about just that happening with (sometimes private contracted) snow plow drivers - they started putting GPS on the plows & let's just say there was a lot of sleeping on the job going on & contracted routes just plain not getting plowed."

Funny. About a year ago, the unions were protesting putting GPS on school buses. You should have seen the TV newscast. The union head was frothing at the mouth about 'Big Brother' and John Ashcroft, when all people wanted was a way to improve the on-time performance and allow parents know where the kids were. See:

http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles /2004/11/09/school_bus_drivers_protest_gps_plan/

I submitted a story last evening regarding this which also included that the Chairman was also looking to take control of Cable/Satellite TV content. Of course the story was rejected :) In any case I can't find the exact article yesterday, but this one contains what I was worried about. The quote that really got be bothered was "You can always turn the television off and of course block the channels you don't want," he said, "but why should you have to?" The slashdot community I would think would be more interested in this then "al a carte" pricing.

I sent the following to the Boston Globe Editor:

Microsoft's campaign against industry standards has sunk to new lows. Stephen Kurkjian's Nov 26th muck-raking article on Massachusetts CIO Peter Quinn paints Quinn's personal dedication and industry outreach as potential scandal and corruption. Is a $543 trip to a conference on digital governance by the Commonwealth's CIO really worthy of a front-page article?

Kurkjian writes "a galaxy of computer companies are listed as sponsors of many of the conferences", but then notes that Quinn "did not list any of them on his authorization forms or the business relationships any of them have with the Commonwealth." It was the conference organizers, not sponsors, who paid for Quinn's trips. Should Quinn also be required to list every conference's advertisers and their business relationships with the Commonwealth? That would certainly be a galaxy of paperwork!

Quinn is doing his job. Moving to the OpenDocument format is the equivalent of trying to convert the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to standardized printer paper. He should be praised for his dedication to the Commonwealth in the face of an 800lb industry gorilla, not dragged through the mud for attending industry conferences.

I believe you have been misinformed, at least about Wal-mart.

A few things before I begin :
There's usually a lot of static here on /. about left and right leaning news sites. I'm going to share with you what I have found, a lot of it people would consider "left" leaning. I consider it information, follow it up if you think it's wrong. I'm always open to good conversation ;-)

With that said, here we go.

From what I've read, Wal-mart is not a great place to work. They treat their employees poorly more often than not, they censor what books they carry, what videos they carry, they have been brought up on charges of time-clock tampering, and many other dishonest practices. They receive public money to purchase the land the stores are on, to build the buildings themselves, and to train their workforce. See http://goodjobsfirst.org/pdf/wmtstudy.pdf for a study done about the massive tax abatements and subsidies they receive.

As for treating their employees well, a quick google turned up the following:
http://www.ufcw135.org/wal/wal_litigation_over_sex _discrim.htm
http://www.walmartclass.com/public_home.html
http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2005 /01/08/wal_mart_lawsuit_certified/

Now granted, employing a large number of people does open you to a lot of suits, but there is a very real trend in the types of suits against them. I've heard many, many, stories on the evening news and also read a few in print about their practices in regards to going into a town specifically to take over the local market, driving out the local businesses so as to become the only game in town so to speak. Yes, that may be all well and good, it's also predatory.

I refuse to have anything to do with Walmart or any of their child companies because of all the things I've heard. YMMV however. I encourage you to go check this topic out if it interests you.

Cheers!

My 2c

A.A

Maybe in another decade they'll conclude that meditation is a good way to relieve stress.

Funny. I've seen two or three stories on meditation in the newspaper and on TV in the last week. Now this.

The power of Om.

Study: Meditation May Help Ease Hypertension.

Study: Meditation Encourages Health, Happiness.

Quite a few things can send a person into a blind rage, even Art.
I hope that the writers for this story had enough sense for our heros to simply pick up a phone and call the game publisher and ask them what the missions where and for any advice when dealing with these kids. If not that, then our hero walks into a game store and buys the guide.

Boston was recently rated the most expensive city in the US primarily due to housing costs (see bugmenot if you don't want to register for the article). Rewinn is right that the overhead of running a small business is driving employment opportunities away. Maybe it all balances out since the cost of housing is driving potential employees away.

NIC CARD!

Exactly -- the kid of dumbass who studies coffee (and its effects on the heart), yet makes the statement that "robusta" has a robust flavor, is the type of dumbass to say "NIC Card".

I actually think hackers are more likely to find these mistakes awful; they correspond to type errors in a programming language -- and you can't have those.

The Army just came up with a gun, and they backronymed it into "PHASR" --- you know, like on Star Trek? Get it? Really fucking funny, right? See here: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8275&f eedId=online-news_rss20

Well, here's their acronym:
"Personnel Halting and Stimulation Response" == PHASR,

and the official usage will be something like, "PHASR rifle" -- which makes sense.
PHASR performs the role of a goddamned adjective, even though "phaser", in common use, is a noun.

That's so retarded!

Yet the idiots who named it clearly intended for it to be called "PHASR", not "PHASR rifle", or "PHASR sniper rifle."

So that means that if the jarheads use it semantically correct ("PHASR rifle") they'll sound like idiots saying "NIC card" -- but if they just say something like, "I blasted him with my PHASR!", you'll be thinking, "How did you blast him with your 'stimulation response'?" and then, "well, was that a 'PHASR rifle/pistol/dildo that you blasted him with?" PHASR is just an adjective, right?

There's an increasing trend for this sort of retarded name-i-fyin':

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles /2005/10/04/robotic_vacuum_maker_bu_team_up_on_ant isniper_device/

"REDOWL"? Why not just call it a "FUCKTARD", and come up with a backronym for that?

This Boston Globe article is interesting... it's essentially a summary of a new book by Mike Davis.

It puts pandemics into their political and social context. The article says that if flu does develop into a planetwide scourge, it "will be a largely man-made disaster" caused by "overseas tourism, wetland destruction, a corporate 'Livestock Revolution,' and Third World urbanization.

The Boston Globe has an article on this as well:
http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/200 5/11/06/my_fair_leia_mit_troupe_turns_epic_into_a_ musical/?page=1

If you say anything critical of darwinian evolution around on /. - you'll oft be modded a troll, for example linking the fossils that appear to challenge the darwinian evolution timeline
http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v18/i4/di nosaurs.asp
http://www.bible.ca/tracks/tracks.htm

Darwinian evolution is supposed to be a well grounded theory on origin, not a philosophy.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/20 05/05/01/evolutionary_war/

The rise of ID or creationism, can be seen as a challenge to the humanist/atheist adoption of darwinian evolution.

Merely giving a voice to ID supporters, can be dangerous to your career in the scientific community.
http://www.rsternberg.net/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/artic le/2005/08/18/AR2005081801680.html
http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110006220

There are arguements to be made in favor of teaching ID
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?articl e_id=4761

I take a more dialectic approach, instead of one based on censorship or herd mentality.

Look at their president for pete's sake - he's barely able to communicate on a 3 year old level.

Is Kerry really smarter then Bush?.

Massachusetts is buying these. see http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articl es/2005/09/28/for_each_poor_child_in_world_a_lapto p/

"But Romney believes many Massachusetts students could also benefit from the laptops. He said he was already considering a plan to buy laptops for each of the state's middle and high school students at $500 apiece. But then Secretary of Administration and Finance Eric Kriss told him about MIT's $100 laptop plan. After meeting in July with Media Lab officials, Romney concluded that the lower price tag of their proposed computer could enable the state to roll out the program more quickly."

I'd had a feeling that that story wasn't going to get posted here...

Trained, certified, skilled radiologists make more money than god (at least in the USA).

Which partially explains the popularity of outsourcing to India and the benefits of digitization.

According to this article I read last Monday, Honda is already on its fifth iteration of FCX's. It's considered to be the most advanced hydrogen-fueled vehicle developed thus far by any motor company.

Some other tidbits in this article:

- the car has an ultra capacitor -- a non-chemical ''battery" that injects electrical power when demand is high. The ultra capacitor sets Honda apart from rivals.

- the hydrogen fueling plant in Pomona uses solar energy to produce hydrogen

- the car in the above story is not "the first fuel-cell car on the road anywhere in the world", just the first leased to a family for everyday use.

- the car weighs two tons(!)

I don't see the problem; OpenDocument is royalty-free, thus everybody can implement it without having to pay anybody. This lets everybody compete; the contrarywise of excluding someone from the competition just because he _can't_ race without following some oligarchic rules.

If paying zillions of dollars to those Big Companies isn't enough to have them snatch in a new feature, I wonder what shore we landed ...

... oh, well. Marketing & lawsuits' dep. People that are even able to _use_ handicapped people to reach their filthy targets.

From the FA:

Tim Bray, director of Web technologies at Sun Microsystems, agreed that his company's StarOffice and OpenOffice programs are playing catch-up when it comes to features for disabled people. ''We will cheerfully admit that it's not as good as what's there under Windows today," Bray said.

Senators qustion file-storage shift

I'm sure some other vendor will be only too willing to meet their needs. That's what capitalism is all about, after all

If you can write this line with a straight face, you have a future with Walmart in PR.

I'm not doing anything. I'm an adult. Left the halloween crap back in fifth grade where it belongs. Monday is a good day to sleep in and get some rest from the long work week (which ends on Sunday for me). Some time where I can shut the pager off, ignore the phone and not read any lines of code or compile anything or attend any meetings. I'll take that over just about anything else (except Thanksgiving, because turkey and mashed potatoes fucking RULE).

I don't think these kids will be doing anything, either.

Try these instead:

Canon develops fuel cell prototypes

Canon shows prototype hydrogen fuel cell

Canon to develop fuel cells for printers, cameras

equal Competition.

More like the UN wants control so they can TAX people... Censor people.... etc

More info here:
http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles /2005/10/17/dont_give_un_control_over_internet/?pa ge=1

That's from the Liberal "Boston Globe" newspaper. No choir boys there... They hate this administration, but it has nothing to do with that. It has to do with the UN being inept at doing anything correct.

"imagine a UN member with a lot of clout, and a very low regard for freedom of speech -- China, say. ICANN accredits the companies that sell domain names to Internet users like you and me. Suppose a democracy activist wants to register domain names like downwithchina.com. If China had a say in ICANN affairs, it could push to have such domain names prohibited."

That article speaks volumes, and is a HELL of a lot better written then the parent post.