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You're right, the original MS blog post does not seem to have the "irony" that the ./ summary is implying. IE10 is great, and I think the web community should be welcoming towards Microsoft now that they finally begun working with common standards. What comes to the submitter commenting that MS should adopt Webkit, I think it's b*llshit. The very purpose of standards is that they are implementation-neutral, so manufacturers don't need to utilize any one specific codebase (be it commercial, open-source, Free, and/or public domain) in order to be universally compliant as long as they follow the standard spec.

Essentially, what MS is doing is pitching for vendor neutrality, which is a really GOOD thing, and Mozilla and Opera are on the same boat with them.

This is a little off-topic, but concerns getting TSA to change it's ways. There is a petition on change.org asking TSA to get rid of "priority" screening lines. As the petition says, the speed of a government service should NOT depend on how much we pay to an airline, and TSA should not allow airlines to profit by offering better access to a government service as a perk for a high priced ticket (or participation in their reward programs).

The petition doesn't have a lot of signatures yet, but to me it's a no brainer, so I hope it catches on.

...to repeal the Greek blasphemy law is here.

I think 90% of the time if you ask the harasser about their own behavior they'll feel remorse and regret

You have no fucking idea what you're talking about.

On college campuses, repeat predators account for 9 out of every 10 rapes.

http://news.change.org/stories/repeat-offenders-account-for-9-out-of-10-rapes-on-college-campuses

Why not ask Valve nicely?

In practice, yes you can. Anyone who complains will be called a homophobe and sent for re-education.

Unless they murder the guy, in which case they can claim "gay panic": http://www.change.org/petitions/eliminate-the-gay-panic-defence-from-queensland-law-gaypanic

I don't think it really costs more to buy healthy food. Processed foods are usually purchased because it takes less time to cook them, not because they are cheaper. Maybe it's the time that it takes to work two jobs which makes it nearly impossible to make a healthy and cheap meal. Also, while attending college I had very little income and ate nothing but processed foods yet I never strayed outside of my optimal weight range. I was probably younger than you are now which could impact how my body dealt with those fat generating foods

I've also found that produce in particular is very cheap, at least in my town, but we have lots of local farms and people who care about nutrition so that may contribute to the lower prices.

In trying to find the reason for a link between poverty and malnutrition I found this interesting article and thread which makes the case that it's a lack of knowing how to make cheap healthy meals or the time to research and make those meals which really causes malnutrition. There are some exceptions where there simply isn't a cheap source for healthy food but I doubt it applies to that many people.

I do agree that the CPI shopping cart needs to be changed as it contains items which people don't need to survive or be healthy and lacks some that they do. I also do not doubt that your issues in cooking nutritious foods are real but I'm fairly certain that you could find a way to eat healthily while maintaining an acceptable level of tasty food. Doing so might however require an adjustment to what you find acceptable as I know I had to adjust my desires for taste to lower my cholesterol and blood pressure.

iGoogle is my homepage. It is a very convenient way to display everything I want to see as soon as I open my browser. It has the news, the weather, my email, my calendar, some of my favorite rss feeds and much more. It is the perfect jumping point into the web.

I signed the change petition. I doubt it will change Google's mind, but this is the internet and I need to rant.
http://www.change.org/petitions/google-don-t-kill-igoogle

So I can replace iGoogle with netvibes, we've established that. I'd now like to know how to let google know how displeased I am about their decision to cancel iGoogle. Does anyone have a link I can use to rant at google? I looked around google's help pages for a little while, with no success :-(

http://www.change.org/petitions/google-don-t-kill-igoogle#

There is a petition over at change.org asking Blizzard to release an offline mode path. It would be nice if we could reach the 100'000 signatures necessary

Everything from dungeon layout to boss mechanics to loot drops is done on the server. There is no simple "offline patch" that would let you play without an internet connection. They'd basically be rewriting the game from scratch if they did that (which they won't)

There is a petition over at change.org asking Blizzard to release an offline mode path. It would be nice if we could reach the 100'000 signatures necessary

No doubt, excellent answers! We should do them one in turn as well. I think it's important to note that there's a petition on Change.org to get the funding of Alcator bumped up on the US Agenda. Added my support, it's a good thing, maybe others can do the same. We all know how important this is and what it would do for the world. http://www.change.org/petitions/continue-funding-alcator-c-mod-tokamak-and-us-fusion-energy-research

http://www.change.org/petitions/no-more-attacks-on-file-sharing-culture-and-technologies-pledge

http://www.change.org/petitions/no-more-attacks-on-file-sharing-culture-and-technologies-pledge

It could be worse than losing an iPod... what if you lost your Life? :-/

In case you missed this Daily Mail (UK) story:

+ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2114152/Trayvon-Martin-shot-dead-Police-say-theres-evidence-dispute-claim-neighbourhood-watch-captain-George-Zimmerman-acted-self-defence.html

If you want to sign a petition calling for further investigation:

+ http://www.change.org/petitions/prosecute-the-killer-of-17-year-old-trayvon-martin

"Heartbreaking tragedy: 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was visiting a relative's house in a Florida gated community when he walked to the store to get Skittles and iced tea for his little brother. He never made it home. Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by a self-styled neighborhood watch leader, who told police he thought Trayvon was "suspicious" in the mostly-white community.

Unbelievable twist: A man named George Zimmerman allegedly admitted to police that he shot Trayvon Martin in the chest.

Zimmerman claims he acted in self defense, even though police allegedly told him not to do anything until they arrived - and despite the fact that Trayvon was unarmed, carrying only a bag of Skittles when he died.

In the two weeks since Zimmerman allegedly killed Trayvon, police have refused to arrest the confessed killer.

Hope for justice: Sybrina Fulton is Trayvon's mother, and she's leading a campaign on Change.org to get justice for her son.

Tracy knows that if enough people raise an outcry, Sanford, Florida authorities will be forced to investigate Zimmerman the same way they would investigate any confessed killer.

Sign Sybrina's petition calling on the authorities in Florida to charge George Zimmerman for the killing of Trayvon Martin and try him before a jury of his peers.

---------

Here's a lot more info about Sybrina's campaign, in her own words:

On February 26, my son Trayvon Martin was shot and killed as he walked back from a convenience store where he had just bought some candy. He was only 17 years old.

Trayvon's killer, George Zimmerman, admitted to police that he shot Trayvon in the chest. Zimmerman, the community's self appointed "neighborhood watch leader," called the police to report a suspicious person when he saw Trayvon, a young black man, walking from the store. But Zimmerman, who is white, still hasn't been charged for killing my son.

Trayvon was my hero. At the age of 9, Trayvon pulled his father from a burning kitchen, saving his life. He loved sports and horseback riding. At only 17 he had a bright future ahead of him with dreams of attending college and becoming an aviation mechanic. Now that's all gone.

When Zimmerman reported Trayvon to the police, they told him not to confront him. But he did anyway. All I know about what happened next is that my 17 year-old son, who was completely unarmed, was shot and killed.

I don't know if my family will ever receive justice for this terrible tragedy. It's been nearly two weeks and the Sanford Police have refused to arrest George Zimmerman. In their public statements, they even go so far as to stand up for the killer - saying he's "a college grad" who took a class in criminal justice.

Please join me in calling on the the Sanford Police Department and Florida State's Attorney Norman Wolfinger to investigate my son's death and prosecute George Zimmerman for the shooting and killing of Trayvon Martin."

Probably this petition: http://www.change.org/petitions/z-let-the-lorax-speak-for-the-trees - it was created by a 4th grade class.

Another petition for Hamza Kashgari. This one for getting the US State Department to put pressure on Saudi Arabia. I suspect any such pressure would be useless:

http://www.change.org/petitions/us-state-department-save-hamza-kashgari

Bzzzzt! Wrong! Many actually do accomplish at least some things. See what Sallie Mae changed as a result here and here.

IOW, the IRA has killed more British people than any other terrorist organisation in recent history. And wasn't the US government busy pimping out kids in the case you allude to? http://news.change.org/stories/wikileaks-reveals-us-tax-dollars-fund-child-sex-slavery-in-afghanistan

Yes, there are Muslim terrorists. There are also plenty of other crazy people out there who are out to kill you. There were Maoists in Nepal, and still are in northern Indian states. There's FARC in Colombia, ETA in Spain and Shining Path in Peru. No-one has a monopoly on crazy.

A petition on change.org pulled in about 100k signatures in 12 hours, each signature sending a notification to Verizon's customer service department. It was authored by a woman named Molly, who also beat up Bank of America with a popular petition a few months ago. Massing consumer outrage like this seems to have at least some impact.

"Centrist"? Don't make me laugh! The "left" in today's Amercian establishment politics is to the right of RIchard Milhouse Nixon.

Please elaborate. I would honestly like to hear your reasoning.

Nixon had a universal health care plan the likes of which any of the current GOP candidates would denounce.

http://news.change.org/stories/the-presidents-who-took-us-the-closest-to-universal-health-care-part-2

http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2009/September/03/nixon-proposal.aspx

http://www.change.org/petitions/gaines-center-for-the-arts-john-haught-and-robert-rabel-release-the-october-12th-debate-video-featuring-jerry-coyne-and-john-haught#

petition for release: couldn't hurt to sign
http://www.change.org/petitions/gaines-center-for-the-arts-john-haught-and-robert-rabel-release-the-october-12th-debate-video-featuring-jerry-coyne-and-john-haught#

Let's welcome them home from this situation properly -- with pomp and circumstance. To say they deserve at least that much is an understatement. If we can manage to make this happen for the Yankees, then we need to make sure it happens for the troops.

http://www.change.org/petitions/nyc-mayors-office-welcome-home-parade-in-canyon-of-heroes-for-iraq-vets

http://news.change.org/stories/the-600-billion-challenge-time-for-steve-jobs-to-start-donating

You can't take it with you Steve.

Many of us have a different online identity than our offline, for various reasons. People who are transgendered, have been raped or stalked, use pseudonyms online to protect themselves offline. Being forced to use your real name undermines this completely.

So why not use a realistic fake name? "Abby Noname"? They probably wouldn't notice that it's not real, but it's still against the ToS. It's no better than some different handle. "abby_pie314".

If I'm identified in a community by such and such string of characters, then that's my identity in that community. Lot's of you say that social networking and privacy don't mix... that's not true. In several communities I have a well defined identity that people know me by, and they have no idea that it exists solely online. Why should that prevent me from using Google+? Some of us are actually good at releasing information about ourselves in a controlled manner, so that our real identities are not compromised.

Please consider signing this petition

What a load of pop(sic)le psychology. Tim Adams is a beagle for those who want to ban anonymity for all of us. Seriously, comparing kids stealing candy with valid democratic discourse on the internet - Pleeeese! Sign the petition today: http://www.change.org/petitions/google-inc-google-needs-to-allow-pseudonyms-on-services-like-google-for-anonymity Thank you.

I didn't. I am talking about your false perceptions of the economy and your inability to realize that in the face of overwhelming evidence. How about you be a deer and do something to help society instead of your mongering to exacerbate the present conditions of monopsonic and monopolistic behaviors that have driven prices up and wages down by signing this petition:

http://www.change.org/petitions/make-wages-fair

Will they be there, listening to Stallman, or will they be carefully segregated from their sexual superiors?

Oww, you wanna save them girls don't you? And while there, perhaps you might wanna visit a few spots?.. I mean, common... who can blame you for saving those poor helpless women from those brown filthy savages, right?..

What you probably aren't aware of, because you've probably never tried, is just how difficult it is to immigrate to other countries.

I am an American expatriate. This means that not only have I tried to immigrate abroad, but I have succeeded. I thus certainly do know exactly how difficult it is to emigrate to other countries.

While, generally speaking, I agree that it is difficult to immigrate to other countries, the level of difficulty varies greatly from country to country, and I find that your broad-brushed stereotyping is every bit as unwarranted as the ignorant American perspective that you so deride. Many countries have more restrictive immigration policies than the US, but many other countries have less restrictive policies. Presently, I am an immigrant in Canada. While I'm not interested in discussing the details of my own case, one can easily verify by any reasonable objective standard that immigrating to Canada is easier than the US.

I know people who have immigrated to Australia and New Zealand. Their experiences indicate that AU and NZ are also easier to immigrate to than the US. (How do I know, you ask? Read on.)

These countries don't have lotteries. They have standards (high standards). Upper middle class, educated, high paying job? If so, you've got a tiny shot....only if you happen to work in one of these 3 professions and only if you can line up a job while on the other side of an ocean. Anything less? No. Marry a citizen. That's it.

Interestingly, you picked a very bad example, one which totally undermines your position; in fact you could hardly have picked a worst example. Marrying a citizen would indeed get you in the door in any other country, even countries with otherwise very restrictive immigration laws, but it doesn't always suffice for US immigration! Here's a typical example of such a story. Another example closer to home is my own story. My wife is married (obviously) to me (an American), but she does not qualify for immigration, since I don't live in the US, so we cannot prove immigrant intent (which is required for immigration). Additionally, she does not qualify for a non-immigrant (visitor) visa, since being married to an American constitutes presumed immigrant intent, which is a disqualifying factor for visitor visas. Now go re-read the previous two sentences and tell me how my wife is supposed to legally enter the US.

Point is, there are a surprisingly large number of situations where marrying an American does not allow you to immigrate to the US. The US is practically the only country in the world that restricts spouses of citizens in this way.

I stand corrected on the proximity. Around here, and most places I've seen, that is absolutely not the case.

As for Walmart:
http://news.change.org/stories/8-reasons-we-should-fight-to-keep-walmart-out-of-our-major-cities

How is it different? When you are a company that makes BILLIONS and BILLIONS, it is a little different to provide inadequate health insurance or recommend that your employees take government assistance or any of the rest.

Change.Org says that for the past several days the Chinese have been DDoSing it over a petition they are posting to gather support for Ai WeiWei.

http://blog.change.org/2011/04/chinese-hackers-attack-change-org-platform-in-reaction-to-ai-weiwei-campaign/

But if you go to the Change.Org site to sign the petition, you get a message saying that something is wrong with their servers, which are at Amazon.

http://www.change.org/petitions/call-for-the-release-of-ai-weiwei

http://status.aws.amazon.com/

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9216064/Amazon_gets_black_eye_from_cloud_outage

Could Amazon's outage be the result of Chinese hackers?

Change.Org says that for the past several days the Chinese have been DDoSing it over a petition they are posting to gather support for Ai WeiWei.

http://blog.change.org/2011/04/chinese-hackers-attack-change-org-platform-in-reaction-to-ai-weiwei-campaign/

But if you go to the Change.Org site to sign the petition, you get a message saying that something is wrong with their servers, which are at Amazon.

http://www.change.org/petitions/call-for-the-release-of-ai-weiwei

http://status.aws.amazon.com/

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9216064/Amazon_gets_black_eye_from_cloud_outage

Could Amazon's outage be the result of Chinese hackers?

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/12/meet-the-people-who-want-julian-assange-whacked.ars

http://news.change.org/stories/brits-arrest-assange-us-politicians-seek-to-hang-him

http://www.tomchambless.com/2010/12/01/fox-analyst-mike-huckabee-wants-to-execute-julian-assange-but-let-murderers-go-free/

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/julian-assange-pentagon-072910

The US Government? As of late, that has become a sort of pipe dream. We have revolutions and protests happening to try and secure more democratic ideals and oust the dictatorships and autocracies in Egypt, Iran, and several other prominent Arab/Muslim countries and states, but here in the US we are seizing innocent people's web sites and then pretending it didn't happen, enacting legislation that singles out groups of people by racial profiling them, have senators and governors trying to repeal health care reform, and are trying to find ways to change our laws and/or constitution to prohibit the free press and make it so they can't leak sensitive information anymore without facing jail time and possible treason charges, while we still have a "secret" government prison open at Guantanamo Bay holding prisoners against their will with no charges or due process, one of which died recently after 9 years of captivity, while we hold Bradley Manning in solitary confinement, possibly torturing him because he saw something wrong and decided it was horrible enough that the PEOPLE needed to know about it.

Where the fuck do I live again?

LTMGTFY. Here are the top five items for a google query "Bradley Manning Torture"
http://news.change.org/stories/un-investigating-bradley-manning-torture-claims
http://news.change.org/stories/the-obama-administration-is-torturing-bradley-manning
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/14/manning
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101215/09551812291/us-is-apparently-torturing-bradley-manning-despite-no-trial-no-conviction.shtml
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/accused_wikileaker_bradley_mannings_torture_by_isolation_20101215/

LTMGTFY. Here are the top five items for a google query "Bradley Manning Torture"
http://news.change.org/stories/un-investigating-bradley-manning-torture-claims
http://news.change.org/stories/the-obama-administration-is-torturing-bradley-manning
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/14/manning
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101215/09551812291/us-is-apparently-torturing-bradley-manning-despite-no-trial-no-conviction.shtml
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/accused_wikileaker_bradley_mannings_torture_by_isolation_20101215/

Yes, I could. I could dig up links to the actual cables directly on Wikileaks. Or you could just use Google. Something tells me, though, that this is a ruse. You'd like me to offhandedly suggest something here or there so you can reveal a brilliant rebuttal about how that doesn't meet some minutia to your satisfaction. Am I right?

I'll do just one, and we'll see how it goes from there. On 11/09/10 Obama said, in a speech:

In Afghanistan, we continue to work with a coalition of nations to build the capacity of the Afghan government to secure its future. Our shared interest is in building peace in a war-torn land — a peace that provides no safe haven for violent extremists, and that provide hope for the Afghan people.

However, as early as June of this year it was known to the government that one of their tax-funded subsidiaries was sponsoring rape parties for the Afghan security forces.

As a point of fact, the cable says:

Atmar reiterated his insistence that the U.S. try to quash any news article on the incident or circulation of a video connected with it.

Did you see it in the news last June? It seems that I did not.

So what hope, then, are we offering the children of Afghanistan? The hope that when you're butt raped in secret that at least it will be at a well funded party???

That's just ONE. Do some searches. There are more.

I'm confused, because TFA states "Taken as a whole, however, a leak of this elephantine magnitude, which appears to demonstrate no misconduct by the U.S., is difficult to defend on any basis other than WikiLeaks' general disdain for any secrecy at all." Did the author even look at them, or just accept this fact from others, because I've heard of several examples of misconduct. I've also heard of a ton of stuff that's innocuous or laudable, and I personally am uncertain this leak was overall a good idea, but to say that the release brought no evils to light is disengenuous at best.

The most notable that I recall is funding of companies that support child sex slavery. That's a pretty serious charge that was suppressed for political reasons. I don't really follow all the furor over the leaks, but I know there were other similarly damaging issues brought to light, and you cannot truthfully state that there was 'no misconduct' found.

There are more than enough resources left on earth to reach that goal but our great civilized cultures would rather see the starving masses die off than elevated to our own level if one is to believe people like you.

I agreed until I got here. Besides thinking the planet's ecosystem would not survive if everyone became as wasteful as the average American, many person could actually die. As has happened in the past, US hunger for coltan, used in cell phones, DVD players, video game systems, and computers has fueled fighting and massacres in the Congo.

Falcon

Actually, look at the various states where those same people were up in arms when SCOTUS ruled against those displays.

As for Cuccinelli...you can judge a person for the company he keeps and the comments he makes:
http://gayrights.change.org/blog/view/for_ken_cuccinelli_discrimination_is_funny

As a heterosexual who happens to be a Hispanic but not a Christian, people like this concern me. And any politician that cozies up to Falwell and his Liberty U....definitely deserves careful watching.

Add in the stuff found here http://americanloons.blogspot.com/2010/10/91-ken-cuccinelli.html (which gives links to his lunacy)...and we should be scared when he charges into court because HE thinks something is unconstitutional!

http://criminaljustice.change.org/petitions/view/boycott_amazon_until_it_hosts_wikileaks_on_its_servers_--_for_free

That is very scandalous how a rich person can buy a DA like that. If everyone else who is getting pissed of by this signs this petition then maybe the decision can be reversed.

Seeing as how I've actually been to TEA party rallies and support Libertarian ideas, and have not come across a single example of a libertarian push for government control of anything, I must ask you to cite your sources.

Tea Party protests FOR government intervention to stop the rebulding of a mosque at ground zero.

Brooklyn Tea Party founder John Press, who rallied against the Ground Zero Mosque in recent weeks, again raised the spectre of foreign domination. "The Mosque is founded by a very scary people and the US Constitution does not guarantee the right of a foreign nation to build a mosque in our country," he said. It's unclear if Mr. Press had merely forgotten the First Amendment, but one member of his protest group did recall the constitutional barrier on government suppression of religion -- he just chose to ignore it.

Link

Mark Williams, chairman of the Tea Party Express, blogged about the 13-story mosque and Islamic cultural center planned at Park Place and Broadway, calling it a monument to the 9/11 terrorists. "The monument would consist of a Mosque for the worship of the terrorists' monkey-god,"

Link

Example 2: Tea Party anti-abortionists that WANT government to legislate against abortion.
Link

Example 3: Tea Party WANTS laws to differentiate Gay and Lesbians.

Montana Tea Party Leader Endorses Violence Toward Gay People

Link

In other words the Tea Party is nothing more than religious conservatives trying to control our lives. The Libertarian Party used to be run by Ron Paul who helped kick start the tea party movement. The two are clearly intrinsically linked. Libertarian has come to mean the opposite of its original definition thanks to people trying to play double-speak.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/19/AR2010071903686.html

This article sums it up well in that it's a group with no official racist views but is filled with an unknown amount of racists: http://www.economist.com/blogs/lexington/2010/07/tea-party_racism

The tea party, of course will not have an official racist POV because even they know it would be incredibly stupid to have that out in the open. But when one of their top players is stupid enough write a letter mocking black people, gets caught and has to be sacked.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsPSUxV07x8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S38VioxnBaI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUsBvkfQKUw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vrXJ5-EuoE
Anyone could sit here for days posting links to videos and sites showing examples of Tea Party racists. Sure they like to claim there have been plants but there aren't that many plants and the fact one of their highest people was clearly racist to the point where they had to get rid of him goes to show there is a lot of racism in the tea party. If we're going to attack moderate muslims for not tackling their extremists then the same should be done to the tea party.

The tea party won't do that because the people who aren't textbook racists are still the sort that want to just simply keep the brown people out of their country while forgetting their country was stolen from brown people.

Searching for tea party god or tea party christianity will bring up tons of official tea party sites talking about god. Some people like to claim it's not a religious group but it is they mention god often and their mascot, Palin, always talks about god. Like with the racism, it's easy to find links where tea party idiots have been intolerant of other religious beliefs.

http://www.examiner.com/humanism-freethought-in-tampa-bay/atheists-challenged-by-tea-party-patriots
http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local-beat/Holy-water-Two-teachers-tossed-for-allegedly-tossing-holy-water-on-atheist-94795819.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/20/mark-williams-tea-party-l_n_582591.html
http://race.change.org/blog/view/tea_party_plans_kkk-style_attack_on_muslim_place_of_worship
so much for freedom of religion - http://www.teapartypatriots.org/BlogPostView.aspx?id=3e3c9354-e295-4195-bb8a-0e50fd522cf9

Again, there is plenty of material out there showing the tea party's hate for anything atheist or Muslim.

The mere fact the tea party came out just as we had our first black president pretty much shows their mentality. They had no problem with Bush driving up the national debt because it was money spent on killing brown people who didn't believe in Jesus.

Is ten percent a small minority in this case? http://humantrafficking.change.org/blog/view/new_uk_study_one_in_ten_women_in_prostitution_are_slaves