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Micheal Moore can put out a movie tearing into the President, and Rush Limbaugh can tear into powerful govenment officials on his show, and its ok.

So in other words if you're rich and or famous its ok, its you and I that can be snatched off the street and never missed that have to watch what we say.

As for being hunted down by Ashcroft, he's not above doing the hunting. So tell me, are the people who leaked the government's incompetence to the press terrorists? Doesn't Ashcroft have something more important he should be doing?

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/27 96630

"Last week, Knox said she had no firsthand knowledge of Bush's time with the Texas Air National Guard, although she did recall a culture of special treatment for the sons of prominent people, such as Bush and others."

And depending on who is our next president might affect how much funding NASA gets.

I doubt that. Even with Bush's desire for NASA funding congress shot it down. So even a president in the same party as the majority of congress isn't going to have his way on this. The current consensus of the American people is that space is a waste and they want more tax dollars thrown at ghetto waste and trailer trash in the hopes that it makes for a brighter future... As if.

Until Joe Taxpayer accepts that money is not the solution to every social ill I doubt we will have a serious tax-payer funded space program. Which will be never by my calendar.

So when the typewriter with a proportional font and a th key is found you have to admit that Bush lied about his guard service. A lie, a dirty little lie from a dishonest and dishonorable liar who cannot be trusted to tell the truth on any subject.

Now... on to business...

The IBM Executive had proportional fonts in 1942, it was the workhorse typewriter for much of business for that exact reason. A Lt Colonel is exactly the type of person who would want correspondence to be written in an impressive typeface. The clerk would use the same machine to write all memos regardless of importance.

First off, military correspondence is prepared in accordance with regulations, not artistic fancy. The notion that a mid-level officer, like a Lieutenant Colonel, would be concerned with pretty typefaces in 1973 is silly. That didn't become a craze until the Macintosh in the mid '80s.

It is very unlikely that a relatively low level tactical headquarters would have the sort of fancy, expensive typewriters like that in the early '70s. This is especially true for a National Guard unit, which tends to get hand-me-downs. Even if they were buying new equipment, it isn't likely at the time that they would have bought this sort of expensive typewriter.

Having typed more military correspondence, memos, and reports than I care to remember, working with proportional fonts is a pain when you are formatting manually. When I eventually was able to use a computer for that sort of thing I always tried to use one font, courier, since it was fixed width and made complying with regulations so much easier. I can't believe that they wouldn't have done the same, i.e. used a fixed width font / typeface.

If you visit this site where you can find a copy of the manual for the IBM Selectric Composer. Or, visit IBM's site and check into the research papers on some of these typewriters. Then start looking for all of the features necessary to reproduce those documents. They aren't there in any single combination of elements.

You might get sort of close, but the only way that you could do it by would be by doing things which would greatly slow down the production of documents. That is, type a bit, stop, swap type elements, type, stop, swap type elements, type, etc., repeat. Based on that, I think it is very likely that they would handle things like superscript elements (th) like almost everybody did with typewriters: use the same typeface and off-set it. That would have been both efficient and acceptable under regulations. To even suggest that they would have done it by swapping type elements is ridiculous, especially since the supposed author of these secret memos could barely type.

At least that is more credible than your idea of field modification to typewriters. The selectric you mention used type-balls. I don't think that there are going to be very many field modifications to those.

Routine administrative functions in low-level military headquarters rely upon standard, mass produced office equipment, generally from the lowest bidder. They don't rely on fanciful machines combining features from multiple known machines that existed somewhere in the world, or ones with special modifications to type runes.

And you should be clear that there are more than just self-proclaimed experts saying these document

You didn't misunderstand as much as I was vague in my condemnation of the strong pro-gun lobby.

I do think guns are fine. I don't think the legislative threat to private gun ownership is as great as the NRA and the GOP would have you believe, however. The NRA has a vested interest in promoting the concern that the liberals are trying to take our guns away. It's job security for them. The GOP leverages this misconception because polls show that for a large group of people, their votes are based on this issue alone. Just like abortion defines so many other peoples' voting patterns.

Because so many people in America feel so strongly about gun ownership, we will have guns available in plentiful quantities for many generations to come. Here's how you can tell this: The main proponents of anti-gun legislation are cops and victims of gun crimes. Both these groups together are far outnumbered by gun enthusiasts. Count how many people you see at pro-2nd ammendment demonstrations and then count how many people are at anti-gun protests. The former dwarfs the latter by a lot.

Now and again you'll see gun-limiting legislation proposed. In most cases, this is an effort to capitalize politically on some tragedy that occurred somewhere or the politicians floating it are trying to get the endorsement of the police unions. That endorsement allows them to claim they're 'tough on crime.'

I do have to disagree with your recommendation that citizens own fully automatic rifles. In the rare instances where we have people go berzerk and shoot up an elementary school, or their workplaces, or just random strangers, one of the things that limits the amount of violence is the rate at which bullets can be fired. I do think it would be very fun to shoot a fully automatic weapon, but if it means that a nut shooting into a crowd can kill 30 people rather than 17, I think it's worth it to not enjoy the experience as a private citizen. In all the well-publicized shooting cases I can think of, the killers were law-abiding citizens prior to the killings, btw.

even our citizens on welfare tend to be wealthier than many in smaller european countries!

I suppose some might be offended (I can think of other, more controversial examples...), but more than likely we'd give them the chance to fix it first.

Consider the veteran's group that recently ran those TV ads flat-out accuse Kerry of lying about his service in Nam.

Yes, please do consider this vet group, because one of their charges has been shown to be true.

The chain noise you hear is Kerry's people furiously trying to backpedal from his many blatant statements concerning this fact.

Fact: Kerry claimed several times to have been in cambodia on christmas delivering a CIA agent, even having a hat that he claimed was given to him.

Fact: The claim is complete, and utter, bullshit. Follow the link i sent you and search for 'christmas in cambodia' and kerry for more.

Much of the press is trying to stonewall it, but as you've seen, the dam is starting to crack.

Here's a short version of Kerry in Vietnam: He spent four months and a couple weeks in vietnam. In that time, he was awarded three purple hearts, for injuries that never cost him a day of service. Using a little-known rule, he applied for transfer out after the third purple heart, and was the only swift boat crewmember who did so the entire war.

Shortly after leaving the Navy, he starts accusing the soldiers & sailors in vietnam of all variety of war crimes in the Winter soldier 'investigation'

In 1979, he first claimed to have spent christmas of 1968 illegally in cambodia. This claim was repeated in 1986, and in 2003 even adds the now-infamous magic hat to the story. It was probably repeated a few times in between.

Now the Kerry campaign is claiming that this memory that was 'seared, seared in me' (Kerry) was mistaken, and he was near cambodia.

Nothing of Kerry's statements about being in or near Cambodia have made any sense from a geographical, tactical, or eye witness point of view. He even screws up the timeline with regards to president Nixon making statements about our people in Cambodia before Nixon was even president.

The entire tale he's always been telling about Cambodia has always been weird, and a little too reminiscent of Apocolypse Now. Perhaps Kerry's seared memory came from watching the movie too many times.

One of the swiftvet's charges is provably true. This makes the others worth at least a serious review.

And, and to the responders who have said GOP groups have been funding the ad- no shit, do you expect George Soros and moveon.org to pay for it?

What the swiftvets are doing could hardly be considered illegal, and unethical would be a faaaarr stretch. Kerry slandered them in the seventies. He's pretending to have their support now, and claims his pitiful four months in vietnam 30 years ago qualify him for president, while glossing over his decades in the senate. Kerry basically asked for this. Now he's got it.

"This is a happy day for the Krampitzes but a sad day for liver transplantation," said Dr. Pat Wood, chief of liver transplantation at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital and southeast regional medical director for LifeGift, the organ procurement agency that serves Houston. "The system in place was bypassed because the liver was given to someone who was a lower priority. And I'm not sure the patient was an appropriate candidate to transplant."

The donor materialized after stories about Todd Krampitz, who was unlikely to receive a liver before he died from cancer, appeared on CNN, Good Morning America and other programs.

Dr. John Goss, head of liver transplant programs at The Methodist Hospital and Texas Children's Hospital, performed the operation on Krampitz, 32, using a liver from an out-of-state donor whose family specifically asked that the organ go to him.

Krampitz's blood type is O, which means the donor's blood type was the same. No other details about the donor were available. Krampitz was recovering Friday in Methodist Hospital's Intensive Care Unit.

"We are deeply grateful to this family," Krampitz's wife, Julie, said in a statement Friday.

One physician said the Krampitz case brought to mind that of baseball legend Mickey Mantle, who received a liver transplant in 1995 after only a short time on the waiting list. Mantle, who had the same type of cancer as Krampitz, died from his illness two months later, prompting accusations that he got a liver because of his fame.

"I hope and pray this fellow does well, but statistically I have to tell you his chances are exceedingly poor," said Dr. Steven Curley, a liver surgeon at University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

Krampitz, diagnosed with advanced liver cancer in May, was placed below other patients on the waiting list because of his poor prognosis. New criteria in place since Mantle's transplant gives a person with a liver tumor of 5 centimeters or less higher priority so that the liver can be replaced before the cancer spreads.

But Krampitz's tumor measured 17 centimeters in size when it was found, the family said. When doctors performed surgery in May, they were unable to remove the cancer from his liver because the disease had spread throughout.

Yet Todd and Julie Krampitz, who married in March, refused to accept the prognosis.

Using billboards that pictured Krampitz and the words "I need a liver. Please help save my life," the Krampitz family hoped to utilize a rule that allows donors or their families to designate the recipient of an organ -- and thereby go to the front of the line.

Information about how the donor family heard about Krampitz was unavailable.

In Texas, 1,284 people are waiting for livers, and fewer than 500 become available in the state each year.

Of course! Think of the children! I expect politicians to trot this out every time they're eroding our rights. I fear for the Republic when ordinary citizens start doing so.

The masses are sheep. I expect them to jump at shadows.

Of course 'terrorists' are the latest fade fear. My sister in law calls my wife every time something 'terrorist' related happens. She called when a 21 yr old took a plane joy riding into powerlines. She called when a Military Hummer was stolen. She calls all the time with these silly news items and lives in fear. What a waste...

She fears all these possible threats, but ignores all the rights she is losing to protect her from those threats.

Say what?
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/ 2675067
According to the Houston Chronicle, she'll be doing her time in a facility in downtown Houston that's about as cheery as Sadaam's spider-hole. I can't find the exact link for the actual description of her cell (8x10, frosted glass windows no regular sunlight), but she's doing her year in a very ugly place.

I hope Ken Lay gets this times 50...

Mainstream? Like Forbes, BusinessWeek , Ziff-Davis (and here and here too), CBS News, USA Today, and most have heard of PC Magazine, plus a lot of papers like The Houston Chronicle, The Detroit News, the Syracuse Post-Standard, The Baltimore Sun, and the St. Louis Post-Standard. I have all those links plus others in a list I just send to people. I keep adding to it as I find more. Usually gets the message across that I'm not making stuff up.

Reuters
katu

I read this article in the Houston Chronicle this morning: Flaws may mean it's time to drop Microsoft browser. It's beginning to look like there's a ton of exploitable stuff in IE.

BTM

Maybe sarin gas is classified as a potential WMD, but this crude IUD made from an old shell certainly was not capable of mass destruction.

It was expected that Iraq would be an archaelogical site for WMDs, since they admitted to having them and claimed to dispose of them... the case for war was based on a claim that Iraq had an active stockpile and/or weapons program - neither claim has panned out, and one shell containing pre-formed binary sarin doesn't constitute a stockpile or weapons program by any stretch of the imagination, especially considering that we now have a backstage pass to the entire country and we've only encountered one. Hardly a big deal. This was even stated by our own weapons inspectors. And the administration isn't bleating too loudly about this either. Bush said we'd find a smoking cannon, and he knows as well as anybody that this isn't it.

Nonetheless, there are people out there who will sell you FreeBSD or the Brooklyn Bridge.

And let's not forget James Byrd Jr.

1) People will not be invigorated by watching three people, two billionaires and a pilot, take a joy ride. They will be invigorated by watching man walk on Mars, or at least having a leader who says we're going to go there.

Part true, part false. The cynical side of me says yes, you are right; Julia Roberts being pregnant with twins is more interesting to the public than the technical feat of affortable space flight. Where you're wrong is that we, at least 'we' in terms of US citizens, do have a leader who says we're going to Mars. An announcement also greeted, I might add, with less enthusiasm than that of Julia Roberts' twins.

2) We've had the technology to go to space for forty years. We've had the technology to do suborbital flight for longer. Hell, we could have landed on Mars before I was born, but we didn't have the economic or political balls to do so.

We have landed on mars, presumably before your birth (1976). Oh, did you mean land humans on mars? I'd argue we don't have the technology now, much less 15 years ago. From where does your statement come? I'd like to see how you're going to keep humans alive for the trip to mars (and back). How you're going to launch this project. How you're going to launch on Mars to get humans back into space from that planet before returning to this planet. Maybe this project needs a cheap way to get to space on this planet, and improved technology developed on this planet before we just toss a couple astronauts toward mars.

3) I don't think tourism is really helping the economic situation in Africa. I'm sure they would rather have people invest in their infrastructure. Same thing with space: We need an infrastructure to make space more than an alternative to the safari. We can't do that launching ~500 kg at a time.

I think tourism is helping the economic situation in Africa. Tourists demand things like food, running water, sanitary waste facilities, roads, airports, internet cafes & other things that will eventually improve locals' lives. In terms of needing an infrastructure to get to space, what do you think Scaled is doing? They're (im)proving the technology necessary to get there. While the gemini, mercury & apollo programs rapidly put the US ahead of the soviets in the space race, they did not leave us with affordable access to space. The people at Scaled Composites seem to be focusing on this goal. So what if they haul tourists with the proof-of concept craft? Its a way to fund future developments.

New advances in space access are not going to come from governments. They are going to come from private sector innovators who develop ways to drive costs down & efficiencies up. You're totally correct that we need an infrastructure to make space more accessable from earth & thus make travel away from earth & earth orbit possible. Developing that technology in one shot is inefficient and expensive. Given the other costs that governments face I don't see them being able to dedicate the necessary resources to such a goal. However, the private sector may be able to create new markets that will provide the funding that will get payloads out of earth orbit sooner & cheaper.

They'll recoup the cost by selling the video footage of its spectacular collapse... [SCNR].

0.03 % performance increase with the new, latest, more expensive system.

Yes, but with any luck the new system won't need expensive warranty calls and won't make its designers look like retards.

More seriously though, if NASA was Microsoft, ESA would be the new Linux community : they're copying Hubble with Webb, and GPS with Galileo, more or less to say "Space isn't all Americano/Russian anymore". It's me-too technology, primarily. Not to say that it won't yield interesting results however...

Except in this case it probably was accidental. Caeser got into a major fight in Alexandria and the docks where much of the library material was stored caught fire. Here is one scholars attempt to uncover who was guilty of destroying the library.

Although you are right that many conquerers did deliberately destroy the writings of the conquered (e.g. the Spanish in Mesoamerica), I suspect that more often such libraries were destroyed because the conquerers didn't know or care what a library was (e.g. the Mongol destruction of Baghdad's library or, more recently, Rumsfeld's neglect in Baghdad -- I wonder what librarian Laura Bush thought about the untidiness of U.S. forces standing by while an ancient library burned?).

The exemption wasn't defined here; it's part of the actual FairTax bill (S.1493, HR.25). I also don't think a sales tax system could ever get as complicated as the current system. According to this article from the FairTax site, it's 1.6 million words long, and incomprehensible. Even in the unlikely event that a sales tax system were to grow to that size, it's still better than the system we have now - with a sales tax, the only people who have to worry about doing the calculations are the people selling those taxable goods, not every single citizen.

It also means that no private citizen has to divulge private financial information to the government - again, only businesses engaged in selling taxable goods would have any interaction with whatever tax agency would replace the IRS.

Below is the text of an email I got from savethehubble.org. I agree with it completely. While I'm in general a big fan of robotic technologies and exploration, it really frustrates me that we've become a country full of risk-averse cowards, unwilling to further our knowledge if it involves even a chance of sacrifice. Never mind the fact that those who would actually be risking their lives are completely willing to take that chance. In any case, if politics keeps us from sending up a manned repair mission, I hope we'll be able to send up a robotic one.

April 24th is National Astronomy Day, and a good time to make waves on Hubble's behalf.

No logic can support the notion that while the Space Shuttle is safe enough for multiple flights to the Space Station over the next decade, it is not safe enough for even one flight to Hubble. It is disingenuous to announce bold plans for a risky manned flight to Mars while at the same time retreating from a flight to Hubble just a few hundred miles away. NASA's leadership should either defend the risk of the loss of life as justifiable given the overall benefits to mankind, or it should retreat from manned missions altogether. We can ill afford to spend another decade funding manned projects such as the Space Station and the trip to Mars, only to have them shelved when NASA realizes it has no appetite for the inherent risk. If the shuttle can not be made safe enough at any cost, then abandon it and the Space Station, and spend more resources developing a robotic solution to fix Hubble, and to launch future scientific missions. The impact of Hubble on society and the enlightening new discovery of water on Mars make it clear that for the foreseeable future there is much more to be gained, in terms of science and political capital, from robotic initiatives (Hubble is an optical robot after all) than from projects that require NASA to make the environment safe enough for a man. Let's get back to manned flights when either we as a people have decided to accept the inevitable loss of life, or at such time as we have designed a space ship that is capable of traveling at near the speed of light. Only then will the benefits outweigh the risks.

Did ADD exist before the advent of television and radio? Perhaps we are subjecting things to our infants that permanently affects how they think and react. Parents, after becoming frustrated with how they cannot cope in an educational system that is entirely different than the environment their brains formed in, then treat it as a disorder.

Study of young children links TV to attention deficits
Young children who watch television face an increased risk of attention deficit problems by school age, a study has found, suggesting that TV might overstimulate and permanently "rewire" the developing brain.

For every hour of television watched daily, two groups of children -- ages 1 and 3 -- faced a 10 percent increased risk of having attention problems at age 7.
News Article

I'm not saying that it is wrong to sit infants in front of TVs, but it is a problem if afterwards we stuff them into a traditional box they won't fit in and use drugs as a crowbar.

Well Mr AC, since you havn't watched the news at all or have a very short memory, here's a quick refresher: Trucks that are portable weapons labs . These are the trucks you conveniently forgot about. What other purpose are they for? I suppose a portable babyfood lab or something. As far as the pesticides, we aren't talking about your regular pesticide found in your garage, or even on a large farm for that matter. Heavy duty stuff. This isn't Raid or DDT, its a magnatude more potent than that. Again, why the pesticide with no agriculture for miles in any direction? Especially heavy duty stuff like they found. Why would legit pesticide be hidden so well also? It just doesn't make sense no matter how you try to justify it. According to your numbers, 15,000 iraqi civilian and military personnel are dead. You also mention he killed hundreds of thousands of iranians. That is quite a big difference. How many in mass graves have we found? There are countless thousands saddam killed we are just finding out about. Much more than 15,000. How many lives were spared by overthrowing this madman? The iraqi people's lifestyle will improve and they will not have to live in fear now. Saddam had to go.

As long as it was their honest opinion

But was it? I did not know that dead people had an opinion. Further, upon questioning many of the people who's names were used - they had no idea a letter had been sent in their name. By what stretch of the imagination is this an honest opinion? And yes. You should be fined. Doesn't always happen - but then if you have a pair of pliers in your back pocket after sundown in Texas you can be hung from the neck until dead and they don't do that either. Just because the laws are there does not always mean they are enforced.

Quite the appeal to fear there

All I can say is - yeah...right. If that was an appeal to fear then I'm Alfred Hitchcock. Come on - get it together guy. If you really have a point to make - then make it.

What you are asking for is for laws to NOT be applied to everyone equally

Oh really? Is that what I was saying? That due to the size, money, and influence which Microsoft has - that it is being allowed to set its own terms when it comes to punishment? To flaunt their ability to twist things around so they benefit from what they've done? Or, as the original story pointed out - the punishment does not fit the crime because Microsoft is so powerful that it only takes a few days to get past the punishment. Wow. So just why did we even bother to prosecute them in the first place? We spent hundreds of millions of dollars, thousands of man hours, and we get new computers with Microsoft products installed into our schools so they can extend their monopoly even further? You know - that's like convicting someone of murder, giving them a slap on the wrist, and saying "Don't do that again." I'm sure they will be so afraid that they will never ever kill someone again. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.... As I said before - yeah - right.

Listen. Your logic is heavily flawed. You are saying that because I said to apply the law that I am a hate monger. When in truth - I just want them to play and suffer by the same rules and laws underwhich the rest of us have to play. And simply because it is Microsoft and simply because you might like them - does not make the rest of us automatically hate mongers. So - sorry, I just don't see your logic.

If one is convicted of a crime one should be punished.

I certainly hope so! But realistically - it doesn't work that way. There was a recent court case in Galveston, Texas where someone who was clearly a murderer walked free. The guy had lots of money, hired a good lawyer, and although they could find parts of the body - they couldn't find the deceased's head. Therefore he walked free. That was certainly justice!

Realistically though. Why would IBM, Sun Microsystem, too many companies to list them all, lots and lots of people from all sorts of backgrounds (myself included), the European Community, Japan, China, in fact all of Asia, and even Australia - all of them not like the outcome of the Microsoft trial. Are we all hate mongers? Or could there just be a smidgen of truth here about how Microsoft was treated versus - say AT&T? Remember the baby Bells? Ever wonder why that happened? Think they are nicer today? No - they are back to their tricks again. (See: 1,2, 3, and many others via Google's search engine)

However! Tell you what! Without all of the personal attacks. Without all this hate monger junk - why don't you just present your points on whether or not you believe the Justice Department should or should not use a "Divide and Conquer" approach? That is what everyone really wants to know (myself included). Be waiting to hear from you.

Later!

People shouldn't forget that Enron thrived under both Republican and Democratic administrations.

See the timelines at http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/special/enro n/1127125 and http://www.corpwatch.org/issues/PID.jsp?articleid= 2278.

Skilling and Lay will get a free pass regardless of who is in the Whitehouse because they are rich and well-connected.

Don't forget Enron Field!

like Darl?

Sorry... too much SCO for one day... my bad.

1. 0. Download and install libdecss, which wasn't included with the OS distribution or k3b, because trafficing it is a felony. (Skip this step if DVD in question is one of the handful made that are un-"encrypted")

Nevermind.

On Venus some theories expect life within a clouds, at the right altitude just above deadly clouds of sulphuric acid. here

We should use ballons to inveastigate there.

I swear I previewed first! Anyways - the link (and I ) are wrong - here is the correct address:

from the Houston Chronicle Burning question Should robots look human?

Hopefully this doesn't spur on further developements such as the planned russian tourist space station...

Not that I wouldn't personally love to have a chance to travel in space myself, but NASA should be more concerned with keeping its astronauts and shuttles in shape.

here but without registration.

Many Houstonians are already becoming adverse to the Super Bowl. The advertisements are extremely ubiquitous, littering even the communities that possess no affiliation with the municipality of Houston. Enormous billboards and banners attached to streetlamps emphasize the "importance" of the incipient Super Bowl.

As you're probably aware, the local government has also installed a multi-million dollar light rail system that many speculate is intended specifically to transport passengers from downtown to Reliant Stadium. Metro has removed one lane from streets traversed by the light rail system; commuters are "warned" of oncoming traffic by a single light encouraging them not to cross the track. Ten serious traffic accidents have already been attributed to this implementation, which is reportedly being scrutinized by citizens and Metro engineers alike.

This event is an exhibition of corporately funded "sports," pop stars endorsed by the RIAA, and the "best" television commercials. It astonishes me that the Slashdot community is so ravenously infatuated. With the possible exception of SCO, this encompasses everything that you are supposedly adverse to.

Perhaps the slashdot crowd is subconsciously recoiling from the anticipated guilt they'll feel over the additional jobs that will be shaved away from the US economy by this technology. Just a few more ex-warehouse (part-time) employees crowding the streetcorners panhandling. Not that it means you got a cheaper price on your made-in-China sweatpants. Gains in productivity from stuff like RFID tags increase profit for shareholders. Competition determines pricing for the consumer.

But hey, it's not like those Sam's Club employees aren't better off than the Chinese prisoners who make the products sold @ Sam's.. They are only LOCKED IN THE STORE overnight.

You apparently aren't keeping up. The latest news shows that some of the executives are almost surely going to be serving prison sentences, it's simply a matter of how long.

Dude, the headline should've read:
200 Geek All-Stars Buy Camping Equipment From Their Old Co-Workers

Hahahahahah! I think GOOGLE and SLASHDOT are the only remaining tech companies in America THAT STILL EMPLOY AMERICANS.

Hehehehe!

To which he replied "Try living on $7 bucks an hour"

Well, it's gone up since then at least -- it's $13-15/hour now. See here or here.

That said, $13-15/hour isn't going to be a whole lot of money if you're living in So. Cal. -- it's livable, but you're not going to be buying a lot of toys (except lego obviously) or live in a big house (unless you make it out of the aforementioned lego).

Based on the "Lego Master Builder" FAQ page (here's a Google cache, since the main is toast) there are decent benefits as well, plus some travel (which probably means a good bit of travel, for which you'd be paid extra).

Whether or not you can live on that money is obviously dependant on lifestyle and other income, but, hey -- it still is a dream job (if you like Lego).

This story was all over the media (all too rare these days), I don't know how you missed it, if you're interested.

Google
"Democrats query effort by Homeland Security staffer"

1. Rob Taco Bell right after filling out job appication and interview. Be arrested when cops show up at your address on the application.

Actually, it was Whataburger. :-)

Julie Townsend copes by wearing two watches: one on her left wrist set to Earth time, a second, specially modified, on her right running on Mars time.

"There are some things I only know in Mars time," said Townsend, a mission avionics engineer.

Time to write another note to the folks at ThinkGeek: please add the Mars Watch to your Gadgets :: Watches lineup! I want a Mars Watch!

And please, be sure to have it modelled by Ms. Townsend. For me, she's a great role model for my daughters. For the rest of Slashdot: she's a girl geek! Cool!

Sure beats playing Chicken Little.

Here's another fellow who refused to be a "Chicken Little." You guys rock!

"...changes to data by the Commerce Department now show the economy first contracted in the third quarter of 2000, rather than the first quarter of 2001."

Then there's the case of a Washington staffer forced to resign for saying "niggardly", because it sounded like a racial slur, but actually meant "miserly".

Using "kill the Hatians" in the game was probably over the top, but I can't help but look at this and think that if the phrase used was "kill the whites", we'd not have even noticed.

Before you mod me off for trying to troll, I'll just ask you what is more offensive: not paying attention to a "racial slur" because you think people are above the touchiness, or constantly spending your life looking at a certain race as your oppressors without first looking for motivations, or even correct word definitions?

here, from the Houston Chronicle

From the article: "President Bush ordered a scale-back of the 16-nation space station program in early 2001 when the program was projected to soar nearly $5 billion over budget. The scaling-back forced NASA to cancel plans for an American lifeboat and dormitory modules, additions that would enable the station to house seven rather than three astronauts. "

According to the Houston Chronicle, among other sources, the incident took place at 1:59 am CST (0759 GMT) Wednesday.

"We did not send back any calls to the U.S.," the Dell International Services' spokeswoman in the high-tech hub of Bangalore, said on Tuesday.

There's more information (including the company name, which Wired withheld) here.

Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Comcast to Offer Online Music

2003-11-11 13:10:14 Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Comcast to Offer Online Music (articles,music) (rejected)

Wal-Mart will launch its own digital music download service through its Web site later this month. Not to be outdone, Best Buy will also launch an iTunes-type online music store - with the ability to buy through in-store kiosks - based on the MusicNow service (formerly FullAudio). And today Comcast announced music downloads via Real Rhapsody for its 5 million broadband Internet subscribers. The Washington Post's Cynthia L. Webb writes about the online music frenzy and the resultant advertising onslaught due to the sheer number of entrants into the music download market, while Bloomberg's Holly M. Sanders offers an analysis of Walmart's imminent entry into online music, which is significant since Wal-Mart already controls 14 percent of global CD music sales. More at the New York Times (via SeattlePI).