Slashdot Mirror

Oh I have no problem with managers per-se, - I just believe they should have some experience working on the factory floor so they know what they're actually asking of people

There is a good reason, most of the military officers have never been enlisted men. Being a good worker and a good manager are completely different things...

I just don't trust someone who has never in their life experienced even a hint of poverty to run a country with consideration for a population where roughly 1 in 4 people is unemployed or underemployed.

Trust? If anything, I'd trust a politician like Romney or Bloomberg — who became independently wealthy before entering politics — than the guys like Obama, who became rich as a result of being politicians. Do you honestly and sincerely believe, Michelle Obama would've obtained the position with $273k annual salary in Chicago hospitals-system, if her husband weren't a US Senator by then?

Just what makes you trust Obama? He never worked on a factory floor either, nor successfully managed anything of note, nor ever created anything other people were willing to pay their own money for.

His governing for four years was a nightmare — or should've been, if you were paying attention. He turned Bush's detentions of alleged terrorists into killings of the same people. TSA's abuse of travelers blossomed, as did NSA's surveillance. IRS is used to suppress oppostion — under Obama's direction. You may not consider Obamacare to be bad, but it is poised to fail — was designed to fail — which is very likely to lead to a renewed push for "single-payer" setup giving the government complete and utter control of our health. Whereas calls to kill Bush were brushed off as an exercise of free speech (though such calls are felonies, strictly speaking), mere mocking of the President today can cost a person their career and livelihood. Foreigners still dislike us, while the unemployment figures remain far above, what Democrats themselves condemned as "jobless recovery" only a few years earlier.

And you willingly ignored all of that because of Romney's personal views (which he was not even promising his supporters to turn into policy) on a freaking abortion? Wow...

Romney is modern nobility through and through

I bet, you supported Al Gore despite these reasons... I have no problems with nobility rising from the merchant and industrialist class. Their ancestors made their wealth be creating and selling things, that other people wanted to buy — not through warfare or even politics. I'll take that nobility over a fatherless child of an ignoble philanderer, who traveled around the world "marrying" local comfort women and siring children with them only to divorce them a few years later without bothering about the kids' welfare or upbringing.

As for abortions - that's great for your daughter. But a massive slice of the population is struggling just to get by

And that is exactly my point. Personal wealth — which Romney's government would've be

I think that you've missed a bit of recent news.

Indeed. Rather than our elected "representatives"* tracking us, they should be stopping the corporations from tracking us. At least the British seem to have representation... somewhat, I guess. There's way too much stalking in the world by both government and industry, and I'm disgusted by it.

* I'm American. My "representatives" only represent the corporations. If they represented the citizenry pot would be legal, since over half the population thinks the laws against it are stupid.

Given the Orwellian irony that London is the city with the most CCTV surveillance, I'm surprised that smartphone tracking is even an issue.

I must defend the CSM. I knew their technology reporter, and he turned me on to Linux.

I can't speak with authority on the Christian Science religion, but I have met a lot of hospital medical ethicists who deal with them and other religions that discourage medicine. There were some big problems with Christian Science up to 1993, when they lost a big lawsuit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_science#Children.27s_rights.2C_relationship_with_medicine Since that time they seem to be moving away from their anti-medicine position significantly. I don't know what their vaccination practices are now, but Mary Baker Eddy said that they should get vaccinated if that's the law. These problems of children (and adults) dying for lack of medical care come up now more often with the Evangelical churches that interpret the Bible "literally", and with "naturalistic" practitioners.

The CSM is an excellent newspaper. They won 7 Pulitzer prizes. I read a book about newspapers in New England, and one chapter was about the CSM. They (like most other journalists) gave the CSM a great evaluation, although they pointed out the ironic failing of a newspaper based in Boston, one of the centers of academic medicine, that didn't cover medicine. OTOH, they said that the CSM was edited with a philosophy of trying to contribute something positive to the world, which sounds hokey but if you look at their coverage they were really doing it. They lost money. They refused to take cigarette or liquor ads. They never covered crime, except for a broad view as a social problem that we should try to do something about. Most of their circulation was by mail, which arrived a day or two later, so they eschewed deadline coverage of the day's news and instead wrote more analytical, fact-checked, thoughtful stories.

They were actually quite liberal, and during the times when the war hawks were beating the drums of war, the CSM took one step back, reported the objective facts, and treated our "enemies" like human beings, when even papers like the New York Times were doing their job as stenographers to the military-industrial complex. Foreign correspondents in war zones are awfully expensive, but it was worth it. They also had local freelancers, who knew the people and understood the culture. For example, the CSM had some of the earliest coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in which they actually talked to people on both sides and treated their ideas seriously. In national coverage, they don't treat politics like a spectator sport where the Democrats and Republicans are supposed to score points against each other. They realize that we have problems to solve.

At one time I read the CSM more or less regularly, and it was pretty good. Like the Wall Street Journal, they would have one crazy editorial every day, and the rest of the paper was independent, rock-solid objective reporting. You don't find too many newspapers like that, now or ever.

They were missing the cynicism in most of the media that "things are corrupt and we can't do anything about it so let's go along with it and make smug jokes about it." See for yourself http://www.csmonitor.com/

Every religion is crazy in some way, and I don't understand how intelligent people can fall for them, but the fact is that a lot of people, including some of my friends, follow religions and do good things. The Catholics are crazy (and hypocritical) about sex, abortion and even contraceptives, but they run hospitals and bring lawsuits to help the homeless. The evangelical Christians believe in creationism, but Forest Mimms is the best electronic engineer I ever saw. The Jews are acting like Nazis towards the Palestinians, but then there's Noam Chomsky and the rest fighting for social justice. The Scientologists I don't have to tell you about, but a bunch of Scientologists were running Earthlink, which was one of the best ISPs at

How about we get Linus to bury some code in there so we can spy on the NSA? See how they like it?

The Chinese, Russians, and no doubt other countries are way ahead of you. They love spying on the NSA. They seem to be getting volunteer help these days too. What do you think Linus will bring to the game?

Do you think Linus will be interested in doing anything about people trying to set off car bombs at public ceremonies? Or will we still be stuck with the FBI and NSA? If Linus isn't interested in doing anything, do you think the NSA should be crippled?

FBI: alleged Christmas tree bomber thought 9/11 'was awesome'
Report: Canadian Terrorists Planned Truck Bomb Attack
Suicide truck bomb kills 14 in Russia
3 sought after 2nd car bomb found in London

I know, you're frustrated. There is plenty to be frustrated about from just about every perspective on this. The sad part is that the only people likely to really benefit are the people that want to set of the bombs to kill innocents.

http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Family/Modern-Parenthood/2013/0726/Overweight-people-stressed-by-being-called-fat-will-eat-more-study-says

The answer to why police have become more militaristic is because criminals have become more murderous against cops.

Sorry, officer, but you're full of shit. 160 police officers died in 2010, a 37% increase from 2009. Ten years earlier 150 died. That's out of 794,300 cops. And remember, those are all deaths including squad car wrecks.

To put that in better prospective, 774 construction workers died in the US in 2010.

Being a cop is a hell of a lot safer than being a construction worker.

Here's a little hint, Officer Moore: you might want to google before making a fool of yourself.

Thats gonna be a mountain of microshit! Our government (Kenya) has partnered with microsoft to give laptops to all first-graders. I guess they the winRT tablets could be coming home.

Our government (Kenya) has partnered with microsoft to give laptops to all first-graders. I guess the winRT tablets could be coming home.

What electric vehicles are selling in large numbers? The article in question mentioned how Tesla has about 2k vehicles selling per month, which puts it on par with the Chevy Volt and even the Nissan Leaf. Compare that to what is just a random month picked out for a Honda Accord, and those sales figures pale in comparison.

Strangely, in the market of electric vehicle, Tesla seems to be very much a major competitor in spite of the very low sales figures you seem to be complaining about.

The one thing about a Yugo was that they were extremely cheap to buy and cheap to maintain. That encouraged sales. Perhaps Tesla can get there with a cheap low end consumer vehicle, but at the moment their capital is tied up with producing luxury sedans and possibly re-introducing the Roadster again. There is also the Model X, which is going after the SUV market. My point is that Tesla is still ramping up production. We'll see who produces more cars.

The phrasing "despite many caveats, our results suggest" doesn't mean "we have shown...", it means "if we make a whole bunch of other unsupported assumptions, maybe...".

Well that's an interesting interpretation, from a person who confuses inter-glacial temperature change over many millennia with a similar number of degrees toward a global hothouse over a few hundred years.

'Caveats' likely means possibly-mitigating factors that they considered but which didn't negate their hypothesis. I have never seen the term "caveats" used to mean "unsupported assumptions" in a scientific paper (that would be setting themselves up for quick dismissal, which is no way to get published) especially when the word is bracketed by "our results are striking" and an evolutionary shortfall x 10,000 when even a factor of 2 or 20 would be considered worrisome.

In fact, they discuss the caveats in the appendices.

Normally, it would be kind of weird to debate this study and encounter dismissals like those you've set out. 'Didn't take migration into account'-- Really?? The paper is based on data about species that reach back into the geologic past. And I never expected to see a disclaimer along the lines of 'We narrowed our examination to species known for their immobility'. IOW, over time those creatures moved however they could to try to adapt.

However, in this case its not weird when you clearly didn't consider the study in good faith and instead attacked it with whatever cheap shots came to mind. No doubt its a familiar attitude to just about anyone reading this, the compulsion to misuse good diction to try to reframe an issue in accordance with market fundamentalism (which, embarrassingly enough, seems married to religious fundamentalism once again... both traditions devoted as they are to producing 'teaming masses').

As for the trend in scientific outlook, here is a sample:
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2012/0106/Climate-change-models-flawed-extinction-rate-likely-higher-than-predicted
http://www.livescience.com/16307-climate-path-migration-amphibian.html
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v427/n6970/full/nature02121.html
http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nclimate1876.html
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/biodiversity/elements_of_biodiversity/extinction_crisis/

Ah, the classic left wing approach to trying to paint economics as good-people-vs-bad-corporations. This isn't about "allowing industry" to do anything, it's about not destroying the global economy, the economy that we need to grow in order to be able to make the changes that we need to make in order to reduce population growth and carbon emissions.

Throwing what you get from people back at them (sans data) in reverse is not considered clever anymore. Empty homilies laden with unsupported assumptions (economics>ecology, regulation destroys the economy, etc.) are also unconstructive. Try some humility next time you have the urge to paint an opposing viewpoint as "stupid and unscientific", because the 'more CO2 = good' line you were towing is in fact an Exxon / Koch funded talking point modeled on the "smoking is healthy" propaganda the tobacco industry tried to put across-- you've fallen for their rank denialism.

More on this topic here: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2013/0712/Asiana-flight-214-Was-the-pilot-training-program-to-blame

Yet, when the government started wiretapping citizens years ago due to "national security" reasons, there was no such uproar. Sure, there were a few people that wanted the president impeached, but there was no real support for it.

Yes, and there is a reason for that. The Federal government keeps arresting people like this:

With Nidal Hasan bombshell, time to call Fort Hood shooting a terror attack?
Maryland man sentenced to 25 years for plot to bomb military recruiting center
Feds Arrest Somali Teen in Oregon Bomb Plot
Times Square car bomb: Pakistani Taliban 'claims responsibility'

They aren't arresting political dissidents, they're arresting would-be or actual terrorists. They've arrested and convicted hundreds of them. For some reason many people on Slashdot keep waving their hands and speaking the incantations to banish them from discussion. "There are no terrorists. There is no reason for that sort of investigation."

What makes this even more ridiculous is that there appears to be no small overlap in the people objecting to the US government engaging in anti-terrorism investigations by saying the US government can't be trusted while also condemning the US for not having government run healthcare. Apparently you're not supposed to trust the government to keep you alive by preventing you from being blown up or poisoned by terrorists, but you can trust the government with all your medical records, and to keep you alive by cutting open your body to move things around and take things out, or saw off limbs, or pump you full of chemicals and irradiate you, all subject to this years healthcare budget, all the while having access to your financial records through the tax system, and inspecting the food supply to keep you from being poisoned. Anyone that thinks that the medical system can't be used as a tool of oppression clearly has no idea about what various communist regimes have done.

Whether Snowden simply pulled their chain or they are so bumbling incompetent that with their $50B/year budget the NSA can't figure out if a guy has boarded a plane in the Moscow airport - it sure makes them look massively incompetent.

Wait a minute, are you suggesting that intelligence agencies could be incompetent? That they could actually make a mistake? That goes against 10 years of reveled wisdom on Slashdot. You know, "Bush lied..." Are you sure you want to open that can of worms? If intelligence agencies could possibly be wrong, and people understand that, that might result in a lot more nuance in discussions on Slashdot. We might have to revisit some of the arguments on Iraq sometime.

I to have to wonder if Snowden pulled a counter-intel move, knowing that the NSA was listening in on some conversations and deliberately fed them misinformation to provoke a reaction.

Maybe he did. If that is what happened it is very possible that he had help. After all, the country he is in has more than one first rate intelligence agency (with a history) well schooled and highly capable in implementing maskirovka, i.e. deception. It is kind of their calling card.

If he did deceive the US, he wouldn't be the first.

Saddam Hussein 'lied about WMDs to protect Iraq from Iran'

She still seems to be reasonably popular

Re 'Those countries have denied doing so."
http://www.france24.com/en/20130705-spain-says-it-was-told-snowden-bolivian-flight
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/07/05/3486761/how-the-hunt-for-edward-snowden.html
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/terrorism-security/2013/0705/Faulty-lead-linked-Snowden-to-Bolivian-jet-European-officials-say
France apologises in Bolivia plane row
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-23174874
"France has apologised to Bolivia for refusing to allow President Evo Morales' jet into its airspace, blaming "conflicting information"."

Sadly, I think you are very much mistaken.

No, I'm not. A recent poll shows 60% of Americans in the 18-29 age group feel that Snowden did a public service. Their words, not mine. The fact that older Americans tend to lean the other way is immaterial. The 60-and-over crowd are rarely the ones who take up arms.

Whether the law was just or not, or the illegal actions the law were protecting are inconsequential to the court case.

Legally, yes. Morally, no. Anyone who would vote to execute this guy over doing something morally right will go down in history with the same level of contempt as the members of the crowd who demanded the crucifixion of Christ. Same level of heinousness. Most sane and rational people will recognize that. So basically, the government would have to either pad the jury with either sociopaths or convict him in a military tribunal, and even the latter isn't a guaranteed success.

This sounds almost like what the government is already deploying. In one context, x-ray trucks are terrorism. In the other, they're part of the counter-terrorism effort.

And yes, I know the doses would be different, but where do you draw the line?

That's like saying giving someone an injection with a needle that's been sterilized with bleach is the same as giving them an injection of bleach. Hey, they both contain *some* bleach!

Quantity is important.

This sounds almost like what the government is already deploying. In one context, x-ray trucks are terrorism. In the other, they're part of the counter-terrorism effort.

And yes, I know the doses would be different, but where do you draw the line?

Isn't that like a book proclaiming how bad literacy is?

It's not like Woz posted the clip. And I commend him for it, I couldn't have said it better myself. IMO the cloud is only good for things you want posted publicly.

Personally, I won't do online banking simply because the internet is an insecure form of communication, although I'll shop online with a credit card if necessary since the most it will cost is fifty bucks (and perhaps increased surveillance by the NSA if I buy the wrong book, like maybe 1984.)

Speaking of which, the NSA is cooking up more CYA lies for us. Is anybody stupid enough to believe anything the NSA says?

The limited revelations so far have focused on the technical scheme and said little about the regulatory scheme, how it was used operationally. Leaving out that sort of data is like noting that almost everybody has in their house or on their person a device which has a microphone and transmits all it hears to remote listeners, that is a telephone, but leaving out the fact that it is off until you pick it up or turn it on. The existence of this technology and program says very little about if it is legal and if it has been used appropriately.

Turning off telephone service is inconvenient. Turning off the intelligence services ability to gather timely intelligence can perilous.

Bali death toll set at 202
London 7/7 terrorist attacks
Madrid train attacks
9-11 attacks

What has MI-5 had to say?

U.K. tracking 30 terror plots, 1,600 suspects - updated 11/10/2006

British authorities are tracking almost 30 high-priority terrorist plots involving 200 networks and 1,600 suspects, the head of Britain’s domestic spy agency said, adding that many of those under surveillance are homegrown terrorists plotting suicide attacks and other mass-casualty bombings.

What did the next head of MI-5 say a year later?

New MI5 chief says terror suspects in Britain have doubled in the last year - November 6, 2007

The new chief of Britain's intelligence service MI5 painted a troubling picture of growing terrorist threat in Britain, saying the number of suspects in the country has more than doubled in the past year – and that many of the new recruits are teenagers....

and more:

At Least 4,000 Suspected of Terrorism-Related Activity in Britain, MI5 Director Says - November 6, 2007

LONDON, Nov. 5 -- British security officials suspect that at least 4,000 people are involved in terrorism-related activities in Britain and that al-Qaeda's "deliberate campaign" against Britain poses the "most immediate and acute peacetime threat" to the nation in a century, the head of Britain's domestic spy agency said Monday.

And in 2012?

MI5 warns al-Qaida regaining UK toehold after Arab spring

You cripple the security services at your peril. Unlike the IRA, al Qaida doesn't tend to phone in warnings before a blast.

Cheers

I have a fantasy in which 1 million well-armed patriots surround this guy and tell the NSA / CIA / FBI / federal marshals that they're on the wrong side of the Constitution and can't have him.

The man has taken refuge inside the Communist Chinese city of Hong Kong. He has brought them a laptop full of Top Secret* data from deep inside of the NSA, no doubt only part of which he has revealed. I expect that the intelligence services of the People's Republic of China will get the rest.

I think your fantasy is coming true. As of now he is protected by millions of Chinese Communist patriots in the People's Liberation Army. Hurray?

I think the question at this point is, will the damage that Snowden did to the national security of the United States be as bad as the Walker spy ring, or worse?

Spies cost US security dearly. Senate panel says harm greater than previously disclosed

US naval intelligence has reached a similar conclusion about the consequences of the Walker-Whitworth spy operation. ``Naval intelligence analysis has led us to conclude that the Walker-Whitworth espionage activity was of the highest value to the intelligence services of the Soviet Union, with the potential -- had conflict erupted between the two superpowers -- to have powerful war-winning implications for the Soviet side,'' says William O. Studeman, director of naval intelligence, in an affidavit submitted in the Whitworth case and included in the appendix of the Senate report.

Mr. Studeman noted, ``Recovery from the Walker-Whitworth espionage will take years and millions of taxpayers' dollars. Even given these expenditures, we will likely never know the true extent to which our capabilities have been impaired....''

* CLASSIFICATION LEVELS "Top Secret" shall be applied to information, the unauthorized disclosure of which reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security.

One of the key fallacies of the "false flag" is that you can keep a big operation that kills lots of people secret in a free society. The 9/11 "Truthers" never really address that. Simply consider the fact that the CIA only waterboarded three (3) terrorists, the most recent of which was more than 10 years ago. Nobody died, nobody was injured. The hue and cry over it would make you believe it was still going on and the total was 30,000, not 3. There are plenty of other leaks that damaged national security of a similar nature.

Beside, there is no need to run a false flag terrorist operation. There are plenty of local volunteers, and foreigners willing to try. The real challenge isn't running a false flag, the real challenge is stopping all of the real attempts at a terrorist attack. Of course you know about Boston, but there is the following which will soon mean that the Boston bombing wasn't the first terrorist attack since 9/11, and the short sample after that.

With Nidal Hasan bombshell, time to call Fort Hood shooting a terror attack?

FBI’s Top Ten News Stories for the Week Ending January 27, 2012

Denver: Man Arrested for Providing Material Support to a Designated Foreign Terrorist Organization

Jamshid Muhtorov was arrested by members of the FBI’s Denver and Chicago Joint Terrorism Task Forces on a charge of providing and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic Jihad Union, a Pakistan-based designated foreign terrorist organization.

Baltimore: Man Pleads Guilty to Attempted Use of a Weapon of Mass Destruction in Plot to Attack Armed Forces Recruiting Center

U.S. citizen Antonio Martinez, aka Muhammad Hussain, pled guilty to attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction against federal property in connection with a scheme to attack an armed forces recruiting station in Catonsville, Maryland.

Washington Field: Man Pleads Guilty to Shootings at Pentagon, Other Military Buildings

Yonathan Melaku, of Alexandria, Virginia, pled guilty to damaging property and to firearms violations involving five separate shootings at military installations in northern Virginia between October and November 2010, and to attempting to damage veterans’ memorials at Arlington National Cemetery.

FBI’s Top Ten News Stories for the Week Ending January 13, 2012

1.Tampa: Florida Resident Charged with Plotting to Bomb Locations in Tampa

A 25-year-old resident of Pinellas Park, Florida was charged in connection with an alleged plot to attack locations in Tampa with a vehicle bomb, assault rifle, and other explosives.

2.Baltimore: Former Army Solider Charged with Attempting to Provide Material Support to al Shabaab

A man who secretly converted to Islam days before he separated from the Army was charged with attempting to provide material support to al Shabaab, a foreign terrorist organization, and was arrested upon his return to Maryland after traveling to Africa.

FBI’s Top Ten News Stories for the Week Ending December 9, 2011

Seattle: Man Pleads Guilty in Plot to Attack Military Processing Center

A former Los Angeles man pled guilty in connection with the June 2011 plot to attack a military installation in Seattle.

FBI’s Top

Everybody of significance involved in planning 9/11 is dead,

No, far from it. As far as I know, these plotters are very much alive and in custody:

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
Ramzi Binalshibh
Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi
Abi Abd al-Aziz Ali
Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarek bin Attash

And there appears to be a sleeper cell to track down:

Boston Marathon Bombings: FBI Hunts Terror 'Sleeper Cell' Linked to Tsarnaev Brothers

But a little of the pressure may be off since it looks like the Boston bombing will shortly no longer be the first major terrorist attack since 9/11.

With Nidal Hasan bombshell, time to call Fort Hood shooting a terror attack?

Maj. Nidal Hasan, the Army major facing court-martial for a mass shooting at Fort Hood in 2009, plans to argue that he acted in defense of the Taliban in Afghanistan. So much for the official US line that the shootings were an act of workplace violence, critics say.

--------

According to some, it's a hunt for every person in the world who may not in the future submit to the will of the US Government. War without End, in other words.

According to some? I often find what "some say" to be disingenuous and an easy way to work in libelous statements without direct attribution while providing no useful direction.

Much better to be concrete about it when you can. I generally consider government surveillance of those in direct contact with terrorist groups to be legitimate. In light of the ongoing misuse of government power by the IRS to suppress political opposition groups, religious groups, and donors to political opposition groups, with possible involvement from EPA, FBI, and OSHA, the Justice Department probes on reporters, the stonewalling before Congress, the administrations attempt to ban weapons little used in crime - semiautomatic rifles, the very wide dragnet by NSA is potentially very troubling. I wonder who is receiving the intelligence produced from the analysis, and for what purpose?

It is very much time to write your political representatives. Make sure to at least mention the IRS action against opposition groups, and as much of the above as you care to. Hopefully it isn't too late and things simply look worse than they are. At this moment I'm not placing bets.

Great info! You do bring up a good point though that I had forgotten, there are very few industries that adjust for inflation and Fed jobs are one of those. I doubt though seriously that most of that increase can be attributed to that especially since most of us out here in the private world don't get those kinds of perks.
Also the 2011 numbers are broken out so I didn't double count as Coast Guard etc. were in the 2001 numbers and you're right I didn't go in the middle, it's a 10 year comparison of what the war on terror and the direct employment costs are. Even if you adjust for inflation, these folks have a sweet gig with benefits.

Oh and the idea for the Sequester came from Obama's camp:

Exhibit A is Bob Woodward’s book, “The Price of Politics,” which describes how top aides to President Obama brought the idea to Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D) of Nevada in the summer of 2011, when Congress was grappling with the debt ceiling.

He cut his own throat.

and we need to still throw all of those idiots in congress out either directly by the ballot box or by term limits.

What a terribly shallow view to have.
Day of scheduled suicide: February 8th 2013, my birthday

Yes, let's just throw in some emotions to obfusciate the real question: Is filing a criminal complaint against Facebook the right reaction? The parents claim it is because they failed to prevent "cyberbullying". Unfortunately, there is absolutely no evidence to support a link between suicide and bullying. As it so happens, suicide is the result of mental illness, and the DSM-V doesn't have anything listed for "recipient of mean words". Because it's a mental illness that's the cause here, specifically untreated depression, I'm going to have to turn that finger right back around at the parents. Well, what did you do when you noticed your daughter was depressed?

While her son was in the hospital on a psych hold,
she had this website created for him: http://lettersfornoah.com/about-noah.html

Awwww, a completely unrelated but tragic tale to distract us from objectively thinking about this and instead give in to irrational emotional impulses. I'll stick with the scientific method, kthxbai.

I realize you're still a girl in training, but sooner or later you're going to have to learn that the world isn't so nearly as black and white as you've made it out to be.

An ad hominem attack. Stay classy, 'Tubesteak'. (-_-) With a nickname like that, you're hardly one to diss someone else's choice.

Or maybe you'll write a letter to Noah and explain to him that his depression and isolation is all his parents' fault.

To a significant degree... it is. It has a strong genetic correlation; it runs in families. But let's ignore the science for a minute, that seems to be more in character with the NuSlash(tm) residents like yourself that have been filling this place up since it sold out to Dice...

Dear Noah,
 
I'm sorry your brain is trying to kill you. I went through a 15 year long depression. As an LGBT youth, I understand better than most that it feels like this is your fault, but it isn't. People will tell you that you have to try harder, or just "will" yourself to be happy. You and I both know that's stupid; No matter how hard you try, your brain is still going to keep right on trying to kill you. It took me a long time to accept this; Cold facts and science telling me that depression is due to a chemical imbalance is little comfort. All my thoughts circle around in endless circles telling me I'm worthless, it's hopeless, I'm a burden, etc. I get it, I really do. I've been there. What I can tell you is that your condition is treatable. And it is a condition. It's a real medical condition, just like injuring your foot, or getting pneumonia is -- it's not your fault. It's an accident. These things happen. But with medication and therapy, you can free yourself of these thoughts. It's not easy. Nothing in life ever is. But it's worth it... and you have something I didn't -- a mother that cares. Lean on her until you can stand up straight again. And don't let anyone, especially not some internet pundit of questionable morality, tell you that you're a poster child for depression because you aren't. You're a survivor. You can do this.

But you didn't answer that simple straightforward and completely reasonable question. You evaded it. Anybody who had raised at least one kid through their teen years, especially someone as self-righteous as you, would say "yes I have" and "yes I did raise my kid that way and they turned out great because of it". Ergo you haven't, and ergo your comments are a bombastic joke.

You're attacking the messenger, not the message. Whether or not I'm a parent has absolutely dick to do with whether or not my statements are correct. You may think it matters. Many people think it matters. But it doesn't; The truth is the truth, irrespective of who says it. And that, sir, is why the ad hominem is a logical fallacy, and why I didn't see a need to dignify yours with a direct response so you could sound your trumpet and say "See! See! This one isn't a parent yet, so we can safely ignore everything she said!"

You haven't attacked a single point I've made, nor even disagreed with it. All you're doing is hand waves and personal attacks... and the fact that even one person modded you up suggests that critical thinking skills here on Slashdot continue to fall precipitously and are being rapidly supplanted by feel-good but empty irrational discourse.

Speaking of critical thinking skills; here's some extra support for what I've been saying (and you haven't);

Zero tolerance policies are ineffective, most bullying isn't online but in real life, and bullying online often follows from the same, that the primary risk factor for bullying is being socially marginalized, and the correlation between bullying and suicide is tenuous at best. Source

Zero tolerance policies were demanded by parents who wanted to address the symptom (bullying), not the problem (their child). Bullying can be greatly managed by teach the child to defend his/herself, something that teachers, administrators, and legislators are loathe to admit, but every psychologist will tell you is important. Confronting your attacker is therapudic, even after the fact -- it's where the phrase "getting your day in court" comes from. Anti-bullying strategies must be taught by the parents; For both political and social reasons, it cannot be done by the government. As far as being socially marginalized; While a parent cannot entirely prevent this, they can lend emotional support. As any member of the LGBT community will tell you, parental support makes dealing with coming out and social marginalization, isolation, etc., a great deal easier. Every advocacy group, every psychologist, every support group will tell you this. Parental involvement is the salve to the wound of bullying, not government intervention. It's supported in study after study that parental involvement and influence has an enormous bearing on a child's emotional and mental state. And speaking of that, the lack of correlation between suicide and bullying? That points to these teens already having significant mental illness. Well, where were the parents? It's not like depression isn't treatable.

Why can't we be more like Norway?

A year after Breivik's massacre, Norway tightens antiterror laws

The prosecutor actually shook hands with Brevik because that's how they always do it and the hell some mass murdering bastard is going to make them give in and change their ways for the worse.

You have a rather special understanding of things if you think taking action to prevent the future murder of people enjoying the Queen's peace in Britain is somehow making things worse. Or is it that you are reacting in fear?

Will you welcome a new overlord from a foreign land if they simply offer you peace for submission?

Saturn failed for many reasons, but having a single price wasn't one of them. The brand became so successful that it was taking customers away from Pontiac and Chevrolet which, similar to this article, griped dealers trying to sell those cars.

Then there was the fact that they lost money on every car sold and when they ran ads during the Super Bowl, didn't have cars available for people to look at after they saw the ad.

Here are three articles which give a bit more depth to what I just said:

Businessweek

Christian Science Monitor

autoblog

The actual numbers vary and vast majority is certainly wrong. However, according to this and this the percentage of solved murders nationally has gone from 90% in the 1960s to less than 65% in 2008. In certain large cities, such as Chicago only 30% are solved, or (according to the article in the Times Record News link above) New Orleans it's only 22% solved and Detroit is 21%. California's solved rate is 55%, with Los Angeles particularly only solving 39%.

By contrast Sweden's solved violent crime rate is 5%, of course very few of those are murders. Canada solves 60% of murders.

The younger crowd doesn't really care any more (more and more teens are waiting on getting a license until absolutely necessary).

Wait, what? I find that very difficult to believe. I'd ask for statistics, but it seems difficult to separate out just teenagers living in areas rural enough that you need a car. Where I grew up there's no transit at all; everyone gets a license as soon as possible as the alternative is to never leave home except via school bus or ride from your parents. I can't see that changing and the US isn't exactly pushing for more transit.

Strange but true. See this article.

Actually, revised calculations made their pass even closer, within 30 milliseconds. I may be doing the math wrong, but it seems like that's much closer, like an order of magnitude closer than 700' and then some.

Actually, I was reading about it at google news just a few minutes ago, and slashdot tends to be a bit late to the party in reporting stories like this.. . . So /. shouldn't bother.

I think something slipped past you. Strictly speaking, Slashdot isn't a news reporting site, it is a news aggregator and discussion site (although that generally works better if the news isn't stale as in weeks or years old). That is the point of the forums with each story, and posting - to discuss the news. Or are your posts completely random? (Topic? I don't need no stinking topic! I want to discuss chocolate sundaes! (That should really be hot grits.))

OT prediction: If it turns out that the act was committed by an American nutjob, as with the Oklahoma City bombing the media and political system will quickly forget about it. If it turns out that it was done by a "furriner", we'll hear lots about those awful "terrists" for some time...

Strike two. Oklahoma City is constantly dragged out in discussions and policy debates, especially to denegrate the political right and Christians despite the fact that McVeigh was an atheist on his own tangent. On the other hand, the Obama administration has been actively suppressing use of phrases by the government such as "War on Terror" and Jihadi.

By the way - it would be great if you would just spell foreigner as foreigner. That sort of feigned misspelling makes for tedious commentary.

For those who had the same question I did:

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0218/Who-is-Joe-Stack

I dunno if the US gov is that eager for evidence, but I do think that Iran's would love something like this to free them from hoping a US Navy ship rescues their seafarers.

China's government subsidizes their solar companies to a much greater degree than the US does; that's why Solyndra couldn't compete.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2012/0320/China-subsidized-solar-panels-US-finds.-Are-tariffs-the-right-response

the Commerce Department's International Trade Administration determined that Chinese manufacturers had apparently dumped "massive" quantities of solar panels into the US market that were sold far more cheaply than US-made panels. According to the finding, the lower price was mainly because the panels were heavily subsidized by dozens of low-cost Chinese government loan programs and other subsidies.

I think the situation in Syria today has proven that some of our leaders are keenly aware of the past mistakes in arming an uprising against our enemies.

Fixed that for you.

It's actually rather scary that our last two Presidential elections both saved us from what would likely have been one the worst foreign policy mistakes in U.S. history. Romney, McCain, and Hilary Clinton all support arming the Syrian rebels. I may not always agree with Obama (heck, I usually don't agree with him), but on this issue, we dodged a bullet the size of a freight train by electing who we did. Just saying.

They've already put the pressure on China to sanction North Korea.

Wherever The Pirate Bay goes next, watch out! They might just invade!

When was the last time N Korea arrested visitors saying they were CIA spies? On the contrary, N Korea is very welcoming to foreigners, including Americans.

Charges as CIA spies? How bourgeois. It is much simpler and a better reflection of North Korean socialist morality to just hold a trial.

2 U.S. reporters get 12 years in N. Korea - June 08, 2009

Two American television journalists today were convicted of a "grave crime" against North Korea and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor, a move that increased mounting tensions between the U.S. and the reclusive Asian state.

Laura Ling and Euna Lee, reporters for San Francisco-based Current TV, were sentenced by the top Central Court in Pyongyang in a two-day trial that started Friday as U.S. officials demanded the release of the two women.

The state-run Korean Central News Agency reported that the court "sentenced each of them to 12 years of reform through labor" but gave no further details.

Because the pair were tried by the nation's highest court, there can be no appeal.

Of course the North Koreans are not especially shy about grabbing Americans.

North Korea says it has arrested American citizen - Sun December 23, 2012
North Korea arrests American; continues shelling near disputed border - January 28, 2010
North Korea arrests US man - December 29, 2009

And foreigners? The North Korean government loves foreigners. . . in a sort of "collect them and trade them!" kind of way.

Japanese kidnapped by North Koreans return home in tears
Kidnapped by North Korea
Armed North Koreans kidnap Chinese sailors
Jenkins Photo Proof Of Kidnapping? - ". . .she is a Thai national who was kidnapped by North Korean agents. . ."
Did North Korea Just Kidnap Two American Journalists?
Kidnappers Incorporated
Japanese families fear that North Korea is still abducting - North Korea had kidnapped nationals from at least 11 other countries, including France, Italy and the United States.

It seems they want to impress them, not arrest them.

Impress them in a Potemkin village sort of way, yes.

Welcome to Lenin Disney: North Korea’s otherworldly tourism experience

The surreality of visiting North Korea begins at customs. Officials in full military dress — and there are a lot of them, judging by this clandestine video shot by a Canadian tourist — announce that anyone carrying a cell phone must surrender it, to be returned on leaving. The experience gets weirder from there, based on the numerous travelogues and reports that have emerged since the country lifted many of its restrictions on American tourists in 2010.

Tourism is an opportunity for North Korea, whic

Not all of the figures are in.

While this suggests a declining crime rate, those are figures from 2008-2009.

Violent crime is in fact experiencing an upturn, the biggest since 1993.

Regardless of whether it's going up or not, you can see the burglary/robbery rates are relatively high.

Yes the solution is to make sure that all people are helpless (by law). That will keep them safe! ... So when a person goes wacko (crazy enough to ignore those laws) they will be ... Uhhh ...
Wait, that isn't turning out the way it was intended.

In the UK, handguns are banned for civilians. And most police don't carry firearms either. So in your mind, everyone is helpless. Result? A homicide rate a quarter of the USA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate

The UK is about the size and density of New York + New Jersey + Pennsylvania. With the vast majority of access being through controlled ports. Both of those make black markets for guns difficult.
Contrast with Brazil, gun ownership is illegal for most private citizens (there's limited exceptions for certain things like armed guards). However, they are much higher on the list in your link than the U.S. One of the main reasons I've seen is that the large Amazon border allows guns to be smuggled in to drug cartels. How much of the Canadian and Mexican border do you think is sufficiently secured?

The Christian Science Monitor had an interesting piece a while back on the stress of remotely participating in combat:

At the end of the day, these pilots get in their cars and drive home to their families, mow the lawn and make dinner, or take their children to soccer practice.

The result is an "existential conflict" in some UAV pilots, says Col. Hernando Ortega, surgeon for the Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Agency. It is "a guilt feeling, perhaps – or a 'Did I make the right decision?' " he explains." 'Was this a friendly fire incident? Was it a good outcome? Was it a bad outcome? Could I have done it better?'"

It's obviously not comparable to driving a LAV in convoy wondering when the next IED is going to detonate. But it appears to be a much tougher job than many of us would think.

Nuclear power isn't carbon free, that's why, even though it's a far sight better than coal or oil.

When we let our government use public safety concerns to gain revenues, we should not be surprised that they use analytical methods to optimize those revenues to the point that the revenues become paramount to the initial public safety purpose.

Likewise when we let them seize assets to their profit in the name of justice we should expect them to optimize their seizures in such a way that they achieve maximum benefit therefrom, and to partner with other public agencies to do so whether or not the seizures are just.

The pursuit of money IS the root of all evil after all.

First the billions of taxpayer money spent on BS renewable energy companies then a failure to move nuclear power forward. Better to have hired a Finance expert.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2013/0130/Georgia-nuclear-power-plant-could-be-Solyndra-redux-report-says

I like this argument.. because it wrongly assumes without religion that man wouldn't find another reason for war. and allows the presenter to support their own supposed intellectual superiority because of this.

Pro Tip:
Man always finds a convenient excuse for war.

Atheism, not religion, is the real force behind the mass murders of history

Not really. Having a plane go down and THEN having a grounding is as bad as it gets.

Having a plane with a structural failure is far worse than having a subsystem failure like this. Like the time back in 2005 when an Airbus 310 rudder came off over the Caribbean.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2005/mar/13/theairlineindustry.internationalnews

Or the cracks in the wings of the Airbus 380:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16452878

Or engines blowing off the Airbus 380 in 2010.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2010/1104/Airbus-A380-fleet-grounded-after-Qantas-jet-engine-blowout

Or a cockpit electrical failure on the Airbus A320 during take-off.

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_21378229/airbus-a320s-cockpit-problems-continue-since-faa-order

There are many things that are much worse than a battery fire.

Since Australia enacted stricter gun control laws after a horrible mass shooting in 1996 there hasn't been one since:

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2012/1224/Could-the-US-learn-from-Australia-s-gun-control-laws

So you tell us again this won't fix the problem. Go ahead.

This won't fix the problem.

Since Australia enacted stricter gun control laws after a horrible mass shooting in 1996 there hasn't been one since:

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2012/1224/Could-the-US-learn-from-Australia-s-gun-control-laws

So you tell us again this won't fix the problem. Go ahead.

Perhaps it's because the media hasn't been able to glorify these mass shooting suicides like ours does? Just look at all the fame this guy is getting in the news. Is it any wonder someone else decides to copy that for their own 15 minutes of fame as they kill themselves. They want to go out with style.