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First, because it costs almost as much energy to get something out of a good orbit as it took to get it into that orbit.

In low orbits, there's still some atmospheric molecules (billionths of an atmosphere at 400 km altitude) so you just wait for drag to bring it down. Here they're reducing the time by increasing the drag with a sail (making it more of a parachute).

In higher orbits, that won't happen. But packing the fuel needed to cancel the orbital speed enough to make the orbit intersect the planet is costly.

So the answer is, because it was considered cheaper and they didn't care about polluting something that's a couple of orders of magnitude bigger than the planet is in the first place.

However, now that the satellites are starting to interfere with each other, it may become economical to selectively deorbit some of the dead and dying ones. The Russians are putting together a serious program to develop a nuclear-powered space drone to do that.

Good thing that, in matters of space at least, they're our buds, now.

This case might fit your definition of butchery and it's just the top citation of a google search.

I'm not sure what women have ever done to you, but in your present state of mind, I doubt I'd introduce you to my sister.

Your notion that we punish those who fall in our nation's jurisdiction (ie, our citizens and our agencies that helped leak the information) and not a foreign entity (such as wikileaks) was the same conclusion my coworkers and I reached the other day.

As to those individuals, they have some questions they must ask themselves: 1) Is this secret covering up immoral or illegal activities? and 2) Am I willing to accept a punishment that may include death for leaking this information?

For example, if you knew of the Tuskegee Experiment or the similar experiment in Guatemala, would you be willing to risk death for treason to reveal this state secret? If you were a German in 1943, would you risk death for treason to reveal what happened at Auschwitz?

Yes, these are extreme cases. I recognize some of the information may actually harm diplomatic relations, especially when they are official records on one person's personal opinion on a topic and not a representation of the State's view - and I would hope that foreign leaders could recognize that. Publishing those "secrets" seems trivial - but should revealing such things be considered treason? This is something I am still weighing, as I know perception and respect is vital for stable friendly international relations.

In the end, there are times where I find those that leak information to be very patriotic. Of course, I then have to look at corner cases - do I find those who assassinate doctors who perform abortions patriotic? No. So I still need to look at where this fuzzy line of morality falls - and whether an individual has a right to define it for themselves or it should be based on the majority of a society. It has been something I've milled over for many years...

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/15/sunday/main6300824.shtml

There are some interesting bits in that link.

"With her under anesthesia, they just took this small piece of her tumor, without her knowing, and they put it in a dish and sent it down the hall to George Guy, who was the head of tissue culture research at Hopkins," said Skloot. "He had been trying to grow human cells for decades, and it had never worked. And hers just took off."

"We know, mechanically, that the cells stay alive because they have this enzyme in them that rebuilds the ends of their chromosomes, so the cells just never get old, they don't die," Skloot said. "But why her cells did that when all the other cells didn't is still a little bit of a mystery."

.
"To tick off all the way HeLa cells have been used, we would be sitting here for weeks," Skloot told Axelrod. "Hundreds and thousands of studies. They were used to help test the polio vaccine so that it could be approved for use in people. They went up in the first space missions to see what would happen to human cells in zero gravity. Hers were the first cells ever cloned, some of the first genes ever mapped. They've been used to create some of our basic cancer drugs, like tomaxiphin.

"When you look at this in the context of the family story, you know, at 25 years after her death, not only were her cells still alive, but there were enough of them that if you could pile them all on a scale, they'd weigh 50 million metric tons," Skloot said. "That's 150 Empire State Buildings. You know, it's just inconceivable that that could even be true, and it was."

That's quite something but there's a darker side to this

"Is there any way to calculate how much money has been made off of Henrietta Lacks' cells?" Axelrod asked.

"No. They were the first cells ever commercialized, and that was in the 1950s," said Skloot. "You know, you can buy online HeLa cells or products made from HeLa cells for anywhere from about $200 to about $10,000 a vial."

"But it's an incalculable amount of money?" Axelrod asked.

"Yeah," said Skloot.

And consider this: The family of the woman whose cells changed medical history . . . can't afford health insurance.

Henrietta's middle child, Sonny, is $100,000 in debt after bypass surgery.

Henrietta died eight months after the cells were taken and buried in an unmarked grave and it is undeniable that there is a huge industry that has been built on her cells so why shouldn't there be some recognition of her contribution to medical science and perhaps at least some medical coverage for her immediate family?

How many of us wouldn't be here without the medical developments that have come from the testing on her cells?
it just doesn't feel right that there has been nothing given back to her family. Legally perhaps nothing is owed but morally surely the family should get something.

She's not really growing in popularity as far as her chances of getting elected.

Her approval rating is at an all time low.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20018819-503544.html

That's great that the Iraq War casualties are so low. Only 4,287 dead and 30,182 wounded. Of course that's not all the expected casualties. As of 2008, 20% of the 1.6 million vets from both wars are suffering from PTSD and it is expected that their post-combat suicide rate will produce more deaths than those KIA. Then there's the under/untreated TBI injuries, estimated at one in five soldiers. Then there's the little matter of the Iraqis, who have suffered anything from 100,000 dead to 650,000 excess dead (from just 2003-06) as reported in The Lancet. Then there's the cost of the war to the USA, estimated at $2.4 trillion by the Congressional Budget Office but this number is thought by other experts to be overly optimistic. For example, Joseph Stiglitz has estimated the cost to be higher than $3 trillion. Then there's the cost to Iraq. It was one of the most developed nations in the Middle East prior to the war, with ~90% of urban and ~50% of rural citizens enjoying access to modern water supply systems. Now, open sewers. Garbage pickup went from being efficient to being suicide by IED. Electricity has yet to match pre-war levels. One in three Iraqis now lives in poverty. Sectarian violence is still rampant. And we gave Islamic terrorist organizations a massive PR coup and recruitment tool with not only the invasion and occupation, but also the national disgrace of Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, assorted covert torture destinations, and secret renditions. All this for a war that was in the planning stage by Sept, 2000. That's before the inauguration, and nearly a year before the 9/11 attacks. It was supported by intelligence that was badly out of date, circumstantial, and in many cases transparently fabricated like the yellowcake/spy outing scandal; the 81 mm aluminum tubes for uranium enrichment (which turned out to be tubes for conventional rocket bodies very similar to our own and wholly unsuitable to uranium enrichment and was pointed out in the original, unaltered intelligence reports that only White House officials got to see at the time but red-lined my bullshit meter when Powell mentioned it in 2003); and the laughably insane sooper sekrit anthrax production semi fucking trailers which was over the top obvious bullshit to anybody with minimal training in molecular biology. But you're right, we should be thankful that life-long fuckup W didn't fuck it up even worse.

As for AIDS, President Bush let ideology trump reality and wasted the money on a program that was at best ineffectual: "One of the White House's major aid initiatives, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), has wasted much of its funds on scientifically questionable programs designed to please American religious conservatives. Though studies show that only a comprehensive approach, including condom distribution, sexual education, and antiretrovirals, could reduce HIV, the White House insisted that PEPFAR spend one-third of its behavioral prevention budget on programs that promote abstinence until marriage. It also refused to let PEPFAR money go for programs like needle exchanges and aggressive condom promotion. Recipient nations had to sign an American pledge vowing to oppose prostitution, even though prostitutes are major carriers of HIV in Africa, and signing the pledge could scare PEPFAR recipients out of helping sex workers. Virtually no other major multinational donor agreed with PEPFAR's strategy. Even the administration's own inspector general responsible for overseeing aid couldn't prove that its methods had worked." As reported by CBS News. Heckuva job, heckuva job.

Oh, but they have.

What's going to stop them ramming a truck into the train if they really want to?

As the SAT would say:

Train is to Truck as Truck is to
a. Automobile
b. Bicycle
c. Garbage can
d. Beer can

In my experience, the answer is d.

When my commuter train hit a traffic jam the day before Thanksgiving five years ago, about 12 vehicles, including a couple of light trucks, were involved. There was a lot of noise but the only thing I felt was the brakes being applied. I never felt any impact, and we went several blocks beyond the accident site before the train came to a complete stop.

And fuck you for using made up statistics on a useless straw man argument.

Ahem....

Oh wait, it says 81%! BadAnologyGuy got it wrong! He said it was 82% and it's really 81%!

I bet he feels really stewped now!

Whoops. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/09/28/eveningnews/main5347847.shtml

That's from last year, and we're just now deploying screening techniques that will fail to find this in every case. We need to actually be secure (and show everyone exactly how draconian that will be), or just accept that bad shit is going to happen and living in fear is a waste. The half-assed security theater put on by the TSA is not making us more secure (body cavity bombs being only one obvious example) and is purely to make us "feel" safe - and to be a giant nuisance.

"And to the 82% of people who think this is good, Fuck all of you."

Of course, the 81% number was 2 weeks ago. (CBS poll Nov 7-10). Link.

More recent poll has approval at 64%. (ABC/Washington Post poll Nov-21). Link.

At this rate, expect to have it under 50% by early December. People are rapidly become educated about the absurdity, invasiveness, high cost, lack of security, lack of privacy, and radiation of this procedure.

LOL! You got me!

It's 81%
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20023682-503544.html

So your case is that it is wrong to expect no innocent pregnant women or children to be shot at checkpoints, or adults murdered during interrogation by our military?
We're not talking about mistakes made in the heat of battle

You and your team are manning a traffic control point in Baghdad. A car is speeding toward you at 40 MPH - it will be on you in 20 seconds. It is ignoring the multitude of signs in Arabic and English warning that a checkpoint is ahead, to slowdown and stop, and that deadly force is authorized to enforce the checkpoint. You flash lights - no effect. You fire a warning shot with tracers - no effect. Now, do you:

A) Hold fire because it might be that 1 in 10,000 cars with a pregnant woman on her way to the hospital. (And you've had many vehicles with pregnant women stop before.)

B) Open fire to halt the car to avoid being killed in a bomb blast, attack, or whatever.

C) Run away and hope that you get out of the blast zone from a couple of hundred pounds of explosives (fat chance).

Your answer? A? Let's see what you won for you and your team!

So, we are, in fact, talking about things that happen, very quickly, at random times, by surprise, in the heat of battle, as a result of the driver not obeying signs and signals to stop, deliberate provocation, suicide by police, a tragic accident, or a deliberate attack.
And lets not forget that Al Qaeda and company have been known to force or trick people into attacks, including children and the mentally ill, or to hide a bomb in someone's vehicle and explode it remotely without them knowing about it. You will be just as dead from 10 kilograms of explosive in the hands of the mentally ill as you will be from 10 kilograms of explosives in the hands of a university trained electrical engineer turned suicide bomber.
Mentally Disabled Female Homicide Bombers Blow Up Pet Markets in Baghdad, Killing Dozens
Iraq: girl suicide bomber may have been forced into it by husband's "female relatives"

Expecting that American troops won't murder prisoners is reasonable. When a detainee has died (murder or otherwise), it has generally been investigated and, if warranted, the guilty punished. The US has safely processed and released many tens of thousands of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I'm curious... you seem comfortable slandering American troops, do you ever condemn Al Qaeda for any of the vile attacks they deliberately commit?

Ridiculous?

Air marshal leaves plane after dropping bullets

Passenger Finds Loaded Ammunition Clip on Southwest Flight

US air marshal leaves gun in airport restroom

Air Marshal Causes International Incident

Air Marshal Accused of Rape at Gunpoint

Marshals Fight Battle in Air and on Ground

From that last article:

"How would you describe the management in the air marshal service?" CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian asked a current air marshal.

"Sexist, racist, homophobic, anti-disabled vet group, grossly incompetent," said the marshal, whose identity was concealed. "That's the general consensus among air marshals."

Nearly two dozen current or former marshals have told CBS News the agency is dominated by an "old boys club" of white, male supervisors -- mainly ex-secret service agents who, they allege, routinely discriminate, intimidate and retaliate against employees who question their actions or authority.

"This behavior has just spread like a cancer and it's out of control," the marshal said.

Well ... it sounds like you called it right: ridiculous.

Ridiculous?

Air marshal leaves plane after dropping bullets

Passenger Finds Loaded Ammunition Clip on Southwest Flight

US air marshal leaves gun in airport restroom

Air Marshal Causes International Incident

Air Marshal Accused of Rape at Gunpoint

Marshals Fight Battle in Air and on Ground

From that last article:

"How would you describe the management in the air marshal service?" CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian asked a current air marshal.

"Sexist, racist, homophobic, anti-disabled vet group, grossly incompetent," said the marshal, whose identity was concealed. "That's the general consensus among air marshals."

Nearly two dozen current or former marshals have told CBS News the agency is dominated by an "old boys club" of white, male supervisors -- mainly ex-secret service agents who, they allege, routinely discriminate, intimidate and retaliate against employees who question their actions or authority.

"This behavior has just spread like a cancer and it's out of control," the marshal said.

Well ... it sounds like you called it right: ridiculous.

Ridiculous?

Air marshal leaves plane after dropping bullets

Passenger Finds Loaded Ammunition Clip on Southwest Flight

US air marshal leaves gun in airport restroom

Air Marshal Causes International Incident

Air Marshal Accused of Rape at Gunpoint

Marshals Fight Battle in Air and on Ground

From that last article:

"How would you describe the management in the air marshal service?" CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian asked a current air marshal.

"Sexist, racist, homophobic, anti-disabled vet group, grossly incompetent," said the marshal, whose identity was concealed. "That's the general consensus among air marshals."

Nearly two dozen current or former marshals have told CBS News the agency is dominated by an "old boys club" of white, male supervisors -- mainly ex-secret service agents who, they allege, routinely discriminate, intimidate and retaliate against employees who question their actions or authority.

"This behavior has just spread like a cancer and it's out of control," the marshal said.

Well ... it sounds like you called it right: ridiculous.

I'm not sure what airport security is about anyway. As if "the terrorists" are dumb enough to still try and hijack a plane these days. A smart terrorist would look at events like the love parade. All it takes is a bit of ruckus to have 20 people crushed to death. No need for elaborate plans to sneak complex explosives on board of an airplane. Just should "ITS A BOMB!" on a busy street and you can scrape the people off the street.

They do it every year in Quebec. see: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/01/06/earlyshow/living/travel/main1183527.shtml

The booty bomb has been done:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/09/28/eveningnews/main5347847.shtml

The full body scans are silly because Al Qaeda has ALREADY used suicide bombers with explosives in their BODY CAVITIES. These are not exposed by full-body scanners that stop at the skin surface.

From the linked article "Asieri had a pound of high explosives, plus a detonator inserted in his rectum." That was 2009.

If 80% of Americans don't care, then why should I?

OOPS!

Linky (bet the cleanup crew didn't enjoy this one!):

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/09/28/eveningnews/main5347847.shtml

You might or might not be a CS professor, but you're certainly a liar. If you are a professor, your students should ignore you.

Because what the article says is

For the 2010 fiscal year that ended on September 30, the government had a budget shortfall of 1.294 trillion dollars, down 122 billion dollars from the previous year's record-setting high.

122B / 1.294T = 9.4281298%. "Budget shortfall" = "deficit". The 2010 fiscal year was the first budget that Obama presented. The 2009 budget was Bush's last budget.

Since you're a CS professor and a liar, I'll explain that means "Obama's deficit was 9% lower than Bush's deficit". If we're rounding down, and I'm sure you'd prefer that.

Let's move on to taxes. Since you're a Republican, you're just lying. The definition of taxes is money collected by the government from the people. 95% of Americans paid less taxes starting in April 2009, passed within Obama's first 100 days as his policy. That's because 95% of Americans paid less to the government under Obama's policy. You're lying just like a Republican: the "very creative definition" is to call the health insurance premiums you pay to a private corporation "taxes". Those increases came within the many loopholes and compromises Republicans forced into the HCR law.

There is as much a "consensus among economists" that Clinton's "forced lending policies" caused this recession 8 years after Clinton left office as there is "consensus among scientists" that Climate Change is either not happening or is not reducible by reducing human generated Greenhouse pollution. That is to say "no such consensus", at least not among real economists (or scientists). Of course, there's consensus among Republicans that the deregulation created as a top policy priority by Texas senator Republican Phil Gramm that Clinton signed, and run into the red zone by the Republican Congress under Bush was somehow something Republicans tried to stop. Somehow 6 years of a Republican monopoly on all three Federal bodies that regulate and deregulate couldn't curb them, but a lone Democratic president could create them. I could go on about how rich people who fund and vote Republicans into power defaulted on mortgages at a much higher rate than the poor people Clinton insisted get more credit while Republicans were deregulating. But you're a Republican liar, so I won't waste more time on that.

But I will spend another moment pointing out that even Obama's first budget, that reduced Bush's deficit by over 9%, was itself inflated by spending hundreds of $BILLIONS under the bailout that Bush forced the Congress to pass (along with many Republicans) during his final months in power, the bank bailout. Because Obama forced that bailout to include America's auto industry, the core of America's manufacturing and overall economy, despite every Republican fighting it. Without that bailout, America's economy would be unrecognizable today, two years later. Closely related is how Obama's overall management of the bailouts has kept unemployment at 9.x%, instead of over 12%. Unemployment caused by Bush, his two wars, his ignoring the real economy in favor of deregulating banksters with his Republican Congress.

Maybe you don't see a rescued economy around you because you're a CS professor. More likely it's because you're a Republican, and all you can see is Fox "News", which keeps you dumb and angry - at anyone but the Republican culprits.

While I am a reasonable person who can recognize the truth. You Republican liars crashed America, Obama has kept us out, and you Republicans have used whatever power you've retained to keep us crashed. And you will never stop lying about it.

Doug Richardson, the editor of Jane's Missiles and Rockets, examined the video for the Times of London and said he was left with little doubt.

"It's a solid propellant missile," he told the Times. "You can tell from the efflux [smoke]."

Just from looking at the picture I know that's not right.

Parallax on the contrail tells me the object is receding.

So it started in the lower-left corner of the picture.

Which means the helicopter taking the picture was above the contrail.

I'd be willing to bet that no helicopter has ever viewed a contrail of significant length from above.

should be Sarah Palin who ordered Ben Bernanke to seize and desist from QE2.

Looking forward to Rand Paul filibustering the Senate vote to extend the U.S. debt ceiling, thereby declaring the former U.S.A. to be in de facto default on its outstanding debt.

Yours In Electrogorsk,
Kilgore T.

No, I think religion is the *prime* motive for a lot of shit people does, not a "mere justification".

If you believe someone can become a suicide terrorist without religion, then you really don't understand people... or religion.

The prime motif for a lot of shit people credit religion for, is actually just the results of power hungry men. I'm sure it's not religion motivating Osama Bin-Laden to plan these terrorist acts.

The blind faith in religion has been used for millennia by rulers to manipulate people into doing all sorts of things, from murder to suffer hunger instead of consuming plague-bringin pig meat.

That being told, for many, their belief in science borders in religion, as they just "believe" in it's factual nature without attempting to understand it, even when the answers are there. After all, not only can a blind religious fanatic be seduced to become a mad bomber, but a blind environmentalist may be convinced that starting forest fires is a good for their cause.

The true issue is ignorant passion, and it can be for anything, religion, science, enviroment, or even video games.

Have you seen these pictures? Even those that are leaked with the 'censor' part off are so far from naked picture of you that I really don't get the outrage.

The ones I've seen weren't far from a naked picture at all. Maybe the ones you saw weren't calibrated correctly, or maybe you were looking at pictures from the other type of machine (there are two systems in use: backscatter and millimeter wave). Or maybe you're seeing it after they apply the post-processing filters. That doesn't mean that the unfiltered data doesn't exist, and if it exists, it could be leaked.

And no, they're not effective. The only way they could possibly be effective is if the terrorists didn't know they were there. Now that the terrorists know that they are being scanned, they will simply hide the dangerous substances somewhere the scanners can't see---in a hollow leg, a body cavity, etc. It certainly wouldn't be the first time terrorists smuggled explosives in body cavities. It is the ultimate example of security through obscurity. It is an utterly useless security mechanism because A. its flaws are blindingly obvious, B. it is only effective if the attacker doesn't know that he/she needs to exploit those blindingly obvious flaws, and C. the attacker almost certainly knows it is there, and thus can see the blindingly obvious flaws readily, and thus should reasonably know to exploit those blindingly obvious flaws.

It's about as effective a security measure as checking for photo IDs at the security checkpoint. It's a completely perfunctory, superfluous gesture whose sole function is to keep people who aren't flying from going past security so that they have time for all the other foolishness. In other words, the billions of dollars they've spent on these bits of snake oil are a pretty clear example of the fleecing of America.

We haven't had a major terrorist incident in the US for a while. Why?

A: There hasn't been any credible ability to do so by the bad guys
B: Nobody wants to harm the US any more
C: The counterterrorism efforts have prevented such an attack
For ANY of the above choices, how do you know? I mean, REALLY know, not just guessing or trying to shout louder than the guy next to you whose opinion is different than yours?

Survey says....C!

Al Qaeda Video Asks Detroit-Area Muslims to Act
US warned of mail bomb terror tactic last month
Explosive found in Dubai, part of US terror probe
'US terrorist tried to bring slaughter to subway in Washington'
US man pleads guilty in 'South Park' terror threat
'US thrice shared non-specific inputs on Mumbai attack'
Terrorist in failed LAX attack violated prison release with gun purchase
14 Charged with Aiding Terror Group Al-Shabab
Former Staten Island Resident Nabbed in Attempt to Join Taliban
Feds: NYC Subway Plotters Targeted London, Too (From July)

And in other news....

Osama bin Laden threatens French troops, criticizes France burqa ban
Canadian sentenced for leading terrorism plot
Hotels need EU help to defend against attack
MI6 chief Sir John Sawers says secrecy is vital to keep UK safe
Eight Britons 'trained in Pakistan for European terror strikes'
New security threat at Commonwealth Games, police, army seize explosives
British bobbies get SAS training, new weapons in wake of Mumbai-style terror threats
Gunmen storm Parliament in Chechnya, 6 dead
Bomb on bus in Philippines kills 10, wounds 9
Saudis warn Europe of terr

We haven't had a major terrorist incident in the US for a while. Why?

A: There hasn't been any credible ability to do so by the bad guys
B: Nobody wants to harm the US any more
C: The counterterrorism efforts have prevented such an attack
For ANY of the above choices, how do you know? I mean, REALLY know, not just guessing or trying to shout louder than the guy next to you whose opinion is different than yours?

Survey says....C!

Al Qaeda Video Asks Detroit-Area Muslims to Act
US warned of mail bomb terror tactic last month
Explosive found in Dubai, part of US terror probe
'US terrorist tried to bring slaughter to subway in Washington'
US man pleads guilty in 'South Park' terror threat
'US thrice shared non-specific inputs on Mumbai attack'
Terrorist in failed LAX attack violated prison release with gun purchase
14 Charged with Aiding Terror Group Al-Shabab
Former Staten Island Resident Nabbed in Attempt to Join Taliban
Feds: NYC Subway Plotters Targeted London, Too (From July)

And in other news....

Osama bin Laden threatens French troops, criticizes France burqa ban
Canadian sentenced for leading terrorism plot
Hotels need EU help to defend against attack
MI6 chief Sir John Sawers says secrecy is vital to keep UK safe
Eight Britons 'trained in Pakistan for European terror strikes'
New security threat at Commonwealth Games, police, army seize explosives
British bobbies get SAS training, new weapons in wake of Mumbai-style terror threats
Gunmen storm Parliament in Chechnya, 6 dead
Bomb on bus in Philippines kills 10, wounds 9
Saudis warn Europe of terr

I'm not sure if there is a list. it's apparently common in florida. My company does not allow smoking on the premises and 5 years ago would not hire new smokers if they were dumb enough to admit it (or smelled of smoke I guess).

It's common enough tho...

http://digg.com/news/lifestyle/Employees_getting_fired_for_smoking_or_being_obese
http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/42755
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/10/28/60minutes/main990617.shtml
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/9959391/detail.html
http://businessshrink.biz/psychologyofbusiness/2007/09/27/employees-fired-and-fined-for-smoking-obesity-and-blood-test-results/

Just google "fired for smoking".

The valuation of something becomes detached from their revenue, assets, long-term prospects, and other things. You get a completely fictional valuation that in a couple of months or years won't be worth a damn. In the mean time, someone will cash out a huge amount of actual dollars, and leave everyone else holding the bag when the value of this stuff becomes worthless.

It is interesting how high speed trading will affect long term investors not just for maybe fads like Zynga but more established companies. I would certainly think IPO trading will be highly affected like never before as high speed trading's objective is to make money by buy and selling at large volumes but in very small price increments in very short time periods. It is the day trading concept but at orders of magnitude faster and broader. Day traders could not drop the Dow Jones 600 points in 15 minutes like high speed trading did.

If we can prove beyond reasonable doubt that he is indeed the mastermind behind all this, I say we make a spectacle of him.

Hang him, and broadcast it on all networks at prime time. Have his remains rot at the rope for a few weeks, with daily updates on the news.

You only get such honors if you do horrible things, like scare people with smoke, and can be associated to a region that sits strategically near vast oil fields or other military goals. Actually sabotaging computers at most earns you one minute on one evening of news, some jail time, if you can wring it, perhaps of recognition and sympathy and a good job afterwards.

Is there a mirror of it? It doesn't have to be on YouTube either. :P

Hmm, this video story reminded me of Boing Boing's mention of a two parts YouTube video story (about 18.5 minutes in total; #1 (here, here, or here) and #2 (here or here) showing "60 Minutes" on video piracy from 1978.

So all other things being equal it's better for a child to be raised in a heterosexual same-race rich family

Absolutely, unless you actually look at the studies done. In that case, it doesn't matter a whit whether the family is inter-racial, straight, gay, or whatever.

Just because you have a bias doesn't mean that it's true.

Neither fat nor carbs are bad for you. It's the extreme exclusion of one or the other that is bad. You know vegetables, fruit and such are carbs, right?

Extremes work in the short term but long term your health will suffer.

This is the nutritionist line that comes up every time someone mentions a low card diet.

There are all the dread long term affects, never very specific, and always based on the assumption someone will stop eating carbs for the rest of their life, or never eat any carbs at all while on a low carb diet.

This just a perpetuation of the misunderstanding of the low carb diet. Yet its been proven in the Military, proven even by organizations that were vocal foes for years. Every serious study has supported the low-card diet.

Low card does not equal No-Carb. And even very-lo-card start-out plans (Atkins) doesn't mean forever. There are simply no studies to support the scare mongering about lo-carb diets.

These systems are designend to stop people walking off with entire client databases and that type of thing.

sorry, but who prints out an entire client database and photocopies it, if they have access to it surely in 2010 there is easier ways to transfer data from a computer to a computer

if they have access to small tidbits of information that grants them access to the system they can just as easily write it down for the same effect

and Xerox? aren't they one of the companies selling photocopiers that store a crapton of scans in an internal system, then when they are obsolete the "MIB" ship the fucker off to china for "recycling" without even knowing?

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/04/19/eveningnews/main6412439.shtml

A word from the Vendor if I may

no, as a word from the consumer, either be responsible and make sure everyone knows what your systems exactly do and the dangers of them, or B make a standard dumb machine and mind your own bees wax

Part of that was Enron: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/06/02/eveningnews/main620795.shtml

I don't think this is just one of those "Look at Iran, making some outlandish crazy new allegation!" thing (like it was when Ahmadinejad tried to claim there were no homosexuals in Iran or blamed the U.S. Government for 9-11). Considering the very disproportionate hit they took of these infections, the obvious suspects (those who would benefit most from their nuclear program taking a hit), the precision of the targeting of the virus (two very specific models of Seimens PLC's), the impressive sophistication of the worm, etc. I hardly think it's some tin-foil hat conspiracy theory for them to assert that it was a "western power" (most likely Israel or the U.S.) behind this worm.

Most "recycling" in the U.S. (probably most of the western world) consists of loading electronics into shipping containers and sending them to some third world shithole where the locals strip them in toxic working/living conditions. Interesting investigative report not long ago from 60 Minutes on the subject (and it's a chance to see the rare bit of actual investigative journalism, before it goes completely extinct).

I'm trying to get the clearest objective picture I can about what's going on the food industry, and it doesn't look pretty. Sorry. I'm sure you have access to information that I don't, and follow these things more closely. I rely on reports by journalists, researchers, government agencies, and activists who also have access to information that I don't, and who also follow these things more closely than I do. Just because I'm not in the field doesn't mean I can't try to find what's going on and form an opinion. I will see if I can find the Journal of Dairy Science report you're talking about.

Anyway, you can accuse me of FUD, but there are real, serious, and ongoing health consequences to food industry practices:
* Mad Cow Disease: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3355625.stm
* E Coli in Spinach: http://www.kwtx.com/home/headlines/4198816.html
* Salmonella in Eggs: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/23/business/23eggs.html?_r=1&ref=business

People die when industry cuts corners and regulatory agencies don't do their job.

More of my resources:
* Agricultural Antibiotic Use Contributes To 'Super-Bugs' In Humans - http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/07/050705010900.htm
* Denmark's Case for Antibiotic-Free Animals - http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/10/eveningnews/main6195054.shtml
* The above article cites Professor Ellen Silbergeld - http://faculty.jhsph.edu/Default.cfm?faculty_id=648
* The true cost of cheap chicken - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/the-true-cost-of-cheap-chicken-768062.html
* Agriculture Pollution report from Defra (UK government) - http://www.defra.gov.uk/foodfarm/landmanage/water/csf/index.htm
* Wikipedia page on Factory Farming - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factory_farming

Activists (I am listing them separately, to be fair):
* http://www.nrdc.org/water/pollution/ffarms.asp
* http://www.ciwf.org.uk/
* http://www.farmsanctuary.org/issues/factoryfarming/
* http://www.iowasource.com/health/CAFO_airqu_0805.html
* Food, Inc. (movie)
* Ominvore's Dillemma, Michael Pollan
* Eating Animals, Michael Safran Foer

UFO chatter is way up? 100/1 feels about right.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/09/28/national/main6907702.shtml
http://www.stripes.com/blogs/stripes-central/stripes-central-1.8040/ufo-expert-aliens-cautioning-humans-on-nukes-1.119813

Wasn't Scalia the guy who defended torture in Abu Ghraib with the argument that it was not "cruel and unusual punishment", because it was no "punishment", rather an interrogation technique?

It is tragic that such a fascist became a Justice. This guy belongs in a federal pound-in-the-ass prison, and if someone complains about rape being an illegitimate punishment, well, it is punishment, it is cruel, but it is not unusual, so by Scalia's argument it is just fine.

If there is an electrical spike or software crash that causes the hands to accidentally give their client a lobotomy?

I think these things should be more appropriately called Death Machines. And NO, I didn't read the article; I don't have too. Pure logical deduction on my part demonstrates the danger of these machines.

I am never going to trust mechanical, computerized hands around my head and neck. Even shaking hands with one of these mechanical Monsters can be dangerous.

The article doesn't mention the fact that the organizers have yet to be granted a permit for the joint rally. Also it should be noted that if granted (which is likely), the "million moderate march" will be limited to no more than 25,000 people, per the permit application.

"These three groups, have listed on their permit applications that they will generate 25,000 people for their event," said the official, emphasizing that that is the groups' estimate

Some people understand the difference between a limit and an estimate, and some people don't. Even when emphasized.

The article doesn't mention the fact that the organizers have yet to be granted a permit for the joint rally. Also it should be noted that if granted (which is likely), the "million moderate march" will be limited to no more than 25,000 people, per the permit application.

It's not just e-waste. The same thing happens with decommissioned ships and other dangerous waste. In the U.S., the show "60 Minutes" has done a number of pieces on this, most notably Following The Trail Of Toxic E-Waste and The Ship-Breakers of Bangladesh. Basically, when it comes to dangerous materials (with the exception of nuclear waste) poor countries inevitably become the dumping grounds for the first world. I would bet that, if you were to really track that e-waste in Australia, I mean REALLY track it (not just taking someone's word for it), you would find it eventually in a cargo container with the shippers being surprisingly reticent on the details of its actual destination.

It's not just e-waste. The same thing happens with decommissioned ships and other dangerous waste. In the U.S., the show "60 Minutes" has done a number of pieces on this, most notably Following The Trail Of Toxic E-Waste and The Ship-Breakers of Bangladesh. Basically, when it comes to dangerous materials (with the exception of nuclear waste) poor countries inevitably become the dumping grounds for the first world. I would bet that, if you were to really track that e-waste in Australia, I mean REALLY track it (not just taking someone's word for it), you would find it eventually in a cargo container with the shippers being surprisingly reticent on the details of its actual destination.

Not only that, but the fashion industry sells about 17% of the styles to the 67% of women in the US who are size 12 and larger. They make most of their money on the 83% of styles they sell to 33% of the women. That's why several large department stores and several designers recently said they'd start selling more designer styles in larger sizes.

CBS News coverage

It's amazing that people are so blind to markets that they'll milk one segment at the expense of leaving huge amounts of money on the table elsewhere. Kind of like what the game, movie, and music studios do writing knock-offs of one another for the same audiences over and over and DRMing the hell out of them while everyone else is waiting to actually buy a few decent titles.

You are forgetting about the other "great" corn product: Ethanol. Here we have a fuel that takes 29 percent more fossil fuel energy to produce than the end product generates. Do you think the harvesters and grain trucks run on ethanol?

Also, it doesn't make sense for consumers. My family rents land to farmers. All have ethanol-compatible pickups, but won't fill up with ethanol. Why? Because the mileage they get is so horrible, that the non-competitive price doesn't make sense. But they love the corn prices and subsities though!

What a joke.