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Avatar made money only because it was a first of the new technology of 3d. It has zero re-watch-ability so DVD sales will be dismal at best.

Dismal at best? Avatar-DVD-and-Blu-ray-smash-sales-records or how about 'Avatar' DVD sells big, despite paltry two dimensions or Avatar Crushes Yet Another Record: DVD and Blu-Ray Sales. Just a few random links, google revealed quite a few saying the same thing. I'm sure some people bought a copy and then regretted it, but it seems a lot people didn't seem to mind (or didn't expect to mind) the lack of 3D.

Not. So. Fast.

My reply to the comments:

A business has to bear its own cost of doing its own business, ie maintaining its cash reserves, by deposit envelope, or armoured car. That is the business' own problem, not society's.

That is different than a person who has a requirement in today's society to transact in cash to service their daily needs. It is the profiteering off these daily monetary transactions by these "meta businesses" that are vampiric and it then becomes political. The surcharges are essentially unavoidable.

There is very little cost to provide the "service", shown by the billions in annual profits by those e-cash corporations. They have inserted themselves between the issuer of the financial instrument (the government) and the end user of the instrument (the citizen) and impose a surcharge, which in effect is a "tax" on cash. (For the service. Not to be confused with interest, which is a whole other bookeeping scam, since as we all should know the money didn't exist in the first place: the initial balance is created from naught and then balanced by writing it off at the end of the loan.. )

The collectors of this "tax" have no obligations to those they are collecting from, and instead have shown themselves to be dictatorial. At the point an institution attempts to control society or limit access to government issued privaleges, it is no longer a "business", it is attempting to act with "governance".

If corporations can give to government, but people can't give to corporations, the issue of financial instruments has become fundamental to your democracy.

As far as old catchphrases go, how about "you suck", you ignorant hellbent moron.

Exactly. If we responded to national protests in dictatorships by saying "go Democracy!" and picked sides based on their support for liberty and civil rights rather than their susceptibility to bribery, we could suck a lot of the oxygen out of muslim extremism.

Would it really be so bad if the US and the Muslim extremists were on the same side of the barricades?

There's a lot of people in this discussion claiming that the US is *always* backing dictators with whom we have existing relationships. I want to give two recent counterexamples:
  Tunisia: President Obama hailed the “courage and dignity of the Tunisian people,” and said the United States joined the rest of the world in “bearing witness to this brave and determined struggle." The US has had friendly relations with Tunisia for decades.

Ivory Coast: President Obama "sent a letter to President Gbagbo, urging him to step aside and warning him of consequences if he does not." While the US has never supported Gbagbo after his coup, US companies (especially chocolate companies) have a big interest in the country's stability.

To be more precise: we don't *like* them, but we'll hold our noses and deal with them when they're useful. And that's only our government: most of our people don't like this one bit.

Now's the time for Hilary Clinton to say, "Sorry Hosni, not our problem", and warn him not to go all Tienanmen Square, like she did with Tunisia.

The United States likes dictators if they serve it's interests.

Don't forget there's also the fact that Facebook has trademarked the word 'face', and more disturbingly, Facebook now has facial recognition software which enables them to recognize it trivially. While that might be useful in helping people get tagged in photos, it also has dangerous implications for privacy and advertising.

If there are 10.000 laws in the US

There are well over 10,000 laws in the US. Last year alone over 31,000 laws were passed across the country. In 2009 over 40,000 new laws were passed.

which everyone is breaking 5 times a day without knowing, it shouldn't be that hard to name a few so us average Joes can learn to avoid breaking that law

Well, there are some books on it (both of these are on my to-read list):

Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target The Innocent

Go Directly to Jail: The Criminalization of Almost Everything

in the first place and/or organize a petition to get rid of them.

You think they really care about petitions? It is very difficult to repeal laws and scale back power.

Whoops, screwed up the link for the first interview (link 1). It should have been 1

The ONLY reason we aren't currently wiping our asses with money because it is worth less than TP is the Fed playing Three Card Monty with the money. See QE2 for a nice example. The fed prints the money, buys treasury bonds with the money they just printed, USA blows more money thus needing to sell more treasuries, lather rinse repeat. the problem is it is all a shell game, and when it comes tumbling down like any Ponzi scheme the shit WILL hit the fan. Think those bankers at the Fed is gonna lose money? Hell no, they'll have done converted their money into the Yuan or Gold and quietly slipped out the back when they realize the game is up.

That will leave the USA with NO real income (too much tied into "financial and services" which will be blown to hell and have nobody to sell to respectively) massive homelessness and unemployment, no way to pay the bills like unemployment, social security, medicare, etc. One thing we WILL have is a shitload of arms, lots of warm bodies, and plenty of factories shut down during offshoring that won't take that much to start back up.

If you want just a tiny taste of the REAL picture we are currently looking at I suggest you read this but don't read it just after eating as it WILL make you want to puke! Basically the government and the fed have been feeding the US people a giant line of bullshit, while the money is secretly moving out as fast as they can carry it. You have 4 dollars going out and never coming back for every ONE dollar you got coming in, over 22,000 factories closed in just a single decade with the jobs replacing them being "McJobs". It doesn't take Stephen Hawking to do the math. If it wasn't for the fed I truly believe we would already be in another great depression but robbing Peter to pay Paul just isn't sustainable, especially when you have no middle class left and huge masses of working poor and soon to be homeless.

Hell I can look out my window at the boarded up shops, the business districts in most of the south look like something from "Escape from New York" and the government has bet their asses on an "IP Economy" which is betting the farm on getting other countries to pay for something any kid with a burner can make infinite copies of. Sadly it don't take Nostradamus to see the future the USA is headed for, and it ain't pretty.

Believe it or not, you're wrong.

There are plenty of 10-inch Android tablets, almost all of which are cheaper than the iPad. The Archos 101, for example, is $299 for the 8GB version.

Whether it was Apple's doing or not, the rumors of the $999 iPad did a lot to make people think that the iPad was "cheap" at $499 and that somehow it was Apple's "sales volume" that allowed them to reach that "revolutionary price".

Of course all of that is BS. The 16GB iPad has the same ARM CPU and the same flash memory as the 16GB iPod Touch, which runs $275. And the 10" screen doesn't cost anywhere near $225, even if it is IPS. iSuppli estimates that the 16GB iPad costs $219 to make, which is not hard to believe considering that you can get a full netbook for around the same price.

Begging a dying man to go for a weapon so he could be finished off is sick.

Actually, I took it as the opposite, as in "Don't do it, or you'll be dead".

Whether or not you agree with the conclusions wikileaks came up with from the video, it's pretty undeniable that the soldiers involved were having a grand time.

Didn't sound like a "grand time" to me. It sounded like a group of professional soldiers going about their business. Apparently they were engaged in stopping the Mehdi Army. The Mehdi Army caused Iraq plenty of grief.

It is a remarkable change from years past, when the militia, led by the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, controlled a broad swath of Baghdad, including local governments and police forces. But its use of extortion and violence began alienating much of the Shiite population to the point that many quietly supported U.S. military sweeps against the group. Mahdi Army waning, a tentative sign of stability in Iraq

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/1224/Thermoses-coffee-cups-added-to-list-of-possible-terrorist-weapons

America, TSA esp., has gone off the deep end ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv5iEK-IEzw

It's getting harder and harder to find stuff made in the developed world. This is one man's attempt in 2005.

Do you have any evidence to suggest that the U.S. government has any involvement in this Swedish case?

They're holding him in Britain while the justice department figures out a way to drum up charges to have him extradited to United States. Furthermore the leaked U.S. diplomatic cables show evidence of the U.S. tampering with foreign justice systems through secret political pressure.

My apologies, I assumed /.ers would be relatively familiar with this idea. Sources should have been provided and I'll also retract 'studies' for articles. Also note that knock-off is different than counterfeit; I'm not saying the latter is helpful, just the former.

http://www.techdirt.com/ for general stuff on this topic.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0909/p09s01-coop.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/business/05scene.html?ex=1333425600&en=bfb7593c76d8b819&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=faking-it This one is interesting as it provides a guilty conscience aspect that eventually would have people buying the brand names to feel better about themselves.

I think the basic point is that people who knowingly buy knock-offs were never going to be initial purchasers of the brand name goods. But they would buy them once the price became palatable to them. No sale was 'lost' by

He's not being tortured. Nobody is any more.

You do realize that's what the USG claimed last time around, right? And then this organization named WikiLeaks documented that they were lying:

The WikiLeaks documents reveal numerous cases of torture and abuse of Iraqi prisoners by Iraqi police and soldiers, according to the Qatar-based news agency Al Jazeera, which was given early access to the cache. "It was one of the stated aims of the war to end the torture chambers. But the secret files reveal a very different story. In graphic detail they record extensive abuse at Iraqi police stations, Army bases, and prisons."

US troops reported the abuse to their superiors on more than 100 occasions, according to the documents, but the military – at the highest levels – ordered troops not to intervene.

The Monitor has detailed the alleged torture and abuses that have continued in Iraqi prisons since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

Hopefully, if Manning is being tortured, someone on the staff there has at least a little human dignity and will let the world know. If it were you, I'm guessing you'd convince yourself that he deserved it every time you went to cash your paycheck. Because that's the type of human being you are.

Just want to verify that everyone who is full-on convinced about the negative effects of climate change is a vegetarian. At this point it's essentially indisputable that eating meat -- particularly beef, but all meat due to second order effects aside from methane (increased fuel usage for the additional grain required to grow animals, etc) -- is a significant factor in greenhouse gas production. If every American became vegetarian, the reduction of greenhouse gasses would be greater than swapping out every SUV for an electric car. So, those of you pilloring consumers, government, or industry -- you've already made the switch, right? Cause you wouldn't want to be hypocritical.

Assange was denied bail, and it sounds like he will be held for 60 days before extradition.
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2010/1207/Why-Britain-is-likely-to-send-WikiLeaks-Assange-to-Sweden-on-rape-charges

It isn't a right in the states. At least not all of them. Fire departments are controlled at a municipal level. And in many places fire fighters are pay to use. If you don't subscribe to the fire fighting service and you house catches fire they let it burn down.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Mises-Economics-Blog/2010/1017/Home-uninsured.-Firemen-let-it-burn.-Crazy-capitalism

Is he?

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2010/1026/WikiLeaks-ready-to-drop-a-bombshell-on-Russia.-But-will-Russians-get-to-read-about-it

Hmmmm.... I thought I recalled reading that Sweden, at least, was moving away from its socialist policies. See http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2009/0514/sweden-hardly-a-socialist-nightmare for some details.

I'd just like to point out that the last post of yours that got down-moderated was a "The State knows best" - type post, which is probably more associated with the Far Left than the Right.

Tangential to the thread, but an important distinction:

Authority ("the Church/State/Boss/Father/Mother knows best") vs. liberty ("I'll decide for myself") is orthogonal to left (the interests of people who do productive work) vs. right (the interests of people who own capital). It is certainly true that there are two main clusters in contemporary American politics; whether our two parties reflect or create this dynamic is an open question. But to understand the issues, we have to see politics as multi-dimensional. (And no, the two dimensional "Nolan Chart" used as a recruiting tool by the so-called "Libertarian Party" is just as much of a distortion.)

The contemporary mainstream American right, which we can more-or-less identify with the Republican Party, is capitalist and authoritarian. It thinks the State knows best what sort of sexual and romantic relationships you ought to be permitted to engage in, believes that the state ought to have the power of life and death over citizens (not just in the death penalty, but in opposing euthanasia laws), and fetishizes the military chain of command, where the individual submits to the moral judgment of the State as to who ought to be shot or bombed.

On economic issues, both the GOP and the "libertarian" right of the "Libertarian Party" want a state that's powerful enough to preserve the privilege of the investment class (i.e., the capitalists). You'll never hear them talk about reducing government's power to enforce and create property "rights". The mouth-noise from the GOP about "smaller government" is marketing; their idea of "smaller government" is about decreasing democratic governance and increasing state-backed private power. (It's government cops who come to evict you from "private" property.)

The contemporary moderate left in the U.S. -- the center of the Democratic Party, to a first order approximation -- is more skeptical of the State dictating "family values" and deciding who should live and die, though there is also an bit of a holdover from the Progressive Era's Prohibitionist tendencies to save people from themselves. (It is sometimes a tricky line to figure out what's "saving people from themselves" and what's "sensible consumer protection against fraud".) This group thinks that the State knows better than corporate oligarchs what's good for the economy -- and given the fact that the economy has historically done better under Democrats than under Republicans, they seem to be correct in that belief.

The far left, though, thinks that rather than regulating them, we shouldn't have corporate oligarchs in the first place. While Marxists believe that the solution is a "dictatorship of the proletariat", the libertarian left understands that corporate charters (and therefore the stock market that trades corporate ownership), reserve banking, all the economic factors that concentrate wealth -- hell, money and property itself -- are either creations of the state or rely directly on it, and that disempowering the state along these lines is a more desirable means to the end of economic justice and liberty.

Either:

1) They will be on welfare, because they gave up as you're predicting or 2) They won't qualify for subsidies anyway

Either way, the system screws over a lot more people than it helps, and we the people pay for their healthcare AND for their insurance.

You seem not to understand how welfare works in the US. My source from google says it stops at 4 times the poverty level, which is the phase out level for the EITC which is the most commonly seen as "welfare". As for as medicaid, it depends on the state. For my state if you have a newborn and a family size of 4, you can make up to $44k and qualify, but the income level decreases as the age of the child increases and by age 6 the income limit is $22k (for a family size of 4). If you don't have children, then you have to qualify as disabled to get medicare (as far as I can tell). So, there is some overlap, but not all overlap.

What, by the way, do you think the fact that everyone has insurance will do to prices? Look back at the housing bubble with everyone's easy access to credit. Replace credit with insurance and home prices with billed charges. The have-nots are an integral part of any capitalist system. If you want to design a system with equity for every single person no matter what, do so. But take care to not blend such a system with capitalism, because it will be rife with corruption and abuse.

You show very little knowledge on what caused the housing bubble. Houses were sitting empty as investments, because for some reason people thought that housing prices would always go up. I have a house that I rent out. I can calculate how much I should sell it for based upon what I can get in rent (the rule of thumb is 1/15 of the price of the house per year). There were houses priced such that they could only get 1/30 to 1/60 of the sale price per year because they weren't buying based upon their worth now, but based upon what they were hoping they would be worth in the future. It was pure speculation and gambling (similar to how derivatives were treated on Wall Street) and when people realized that there was no actual value behind them, then the bubble burst.

But, how does this parallel Healthcare? There won't be a bubble. Sure, demand for Healthcare workers will increase so wages might rise as well, but that will be solved in time as the free market adjusts to it.

So long as the bread and circus tickets must still be purchased with money earned, rather than money willed into existence, there's hope that the system can work. In a world where it is a crime to not buy such things - where the able face prison for what the welfare crowd receives for free - you may or may not get the desired result. But either way, the hospital laughs all the way to the bank, and our tax rolls foot the bill.

I don't consider going to the hospital to be entertainment. I avoid it at pretty much all costs, even though I do have good insurance. You are arguing that people will use more if it is free, but I don't see it. People will use what they need (and mothers will probably use a little more than they need on their children, just to be safe) but I do not believe that people have any incentive to go to the hospital and have a blood test run every week.

Continuing your argument, should we get rid of public schools? Have it so that if you do not make enough money then your kids will not get educated? In this country, we believe that having an educated population is good for the country as a whole. Why is the same not true for having a healthy population?

Btw... the US already lags behind most of the rest of the 1st world in infant mortality and life expectancy. I'm sure proud to be an American.

The difference comes down to the fact that how a person chooses to grow as an individual, or what a person should do to be a good friend, neighbor and citizen, may both have very little to do with how someone else wants to enslave that person to do work for them.

Of course, one person's view of being enslaved (say, to rabid nationalism or even just professional ethics that involve not taking a political position for a personal view of social justice) may be another person's view of progress and social uplift. And work as in "doing productive stuff" and "hard fun" and "making things happen" and "helping others" may well have many good qualities which are irrespective of who is defining the work (and the workplace) and who is getting the fruits of the work.

Still, ask yourself, what would be the "perfect" education for a slave these days? How far away are we from that with our public school system?
http://www.thewaronkids.com/

This is a typical example of the intent behind it connected to the "marketplace" and not personal growth (or even just citizenship):
"To fix US schools, panel says, start over"
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1215/p01s01-ussc.html
"What if the solution to American students' stagnant performance levels and the wide achievement gap between white and minority students wasn't more money, smaller schools, or any of the reforms proposed in recent years, but rather a new education system altogether? That's the conclusion of a bipartisan group of scholars and business leaders, school chancellors and education commissioners, and former cabinet secretaries and governors. They declare that America's public education system, designed to meet the needs of 100 years ago when the workplace revolved around an assembly line, is unsuited to today's global marketplace. Already, they warn, many Americans are in danger of falling behind and seeing their standard of living plummet."

While I completely agree with the title of the article that we should start over with our education system, I disagree with the approach as well as "the marketplace" as a primary aspiration. See my other posts on this article for unschooling alternatives).
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1847578&cid=34099866
And see this for other real solutions to the jobs crisis transcending marketplace problems resulting from a combination of limited demand through saturation and the falling value of most paid humor labor due to robotics and other automation, better design, and voluntary social networks:
http://knol.google.com/k/paul-d-fernhout/beyond-a-jobless-recovery#Four_long(2D)term_heterodox_alternatives

It's true that eventually black slaves in the USA were kept from learning how to read (though that was not the case at first, only when they were getting uppity). But, what would you want a personal slave in the 21st century be able to do for you, and would reading, writing, and arithmetic be part of it? Sort your emails according to written criterion you supply? Drive your car while reading all the road signs and navigating efficiently? Be good in bed just the way you like it through extensive study of writings on the topic? Have brilliant engaging conversations about whatever you wanted to talk about based on being informed about current events? Build for you a comfortable house without a leaky roof by being able to follow blueprints precisely?

Remember, the Egyptians must have had many very technically skilled slaves (for the time) to build the pyramids. Slavery is not incompatible with some forms of learning. Even if eventually the slaves might choose to revolt in some way:

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

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

Survey says....C!

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

And in other news....

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

Along with explicitly saying, repeatedly, that violence is never an answer and that his vision for "restoring" America is not an armed revolution. Yes. Classic.

Yes, and Miron Cristea was a holy man who never explicitly called for Jews to be murdered. Overtly preach peace, fan the flames of conflict, and stand back. High profile people ranting against others in such a hateful and aggressive manner has an effect even when the call is not directly to violence.

Maybe you have heard of Byron Williams, who is facing four counts of attempted murder after being intercepted on his way to carry out a massacre at the liberal Tides Foundation? As that article says, "it's not fair to blame Beck for violence committed by his fans, he would do well to stop encouraging extremists" and "It's not that Beck is directly advocating violence... but he's giving voice and legitimacy to the violent fringe."

That about sums it up. And this isn't even a left-wing position:

"It is important that everyone in public life, whether on the right or on the left, realize that words have consequences." - Rep. Peter King (R) of New York, senior Republican on the Homeland Security Committee.

"The Becks of the world are people who are venting their opinions and it is inflammatory, it generates a lot of emotion and generates in some people overreaction that apparently happened in the California case," - Rich Roberts of the International Union of Police Associations

Funny how the very rarely release the information they are given about China, Russia and other such countries.

What, you mean you missed WikiLeaks to release secret Russia, China logs.

Also http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2010/1026/WikiLeaks-ready-to-drop-a-bombshell-on-Russia.-But-will-Russians-get-to-read-about-it

Last I heard there were plans for high speed rail in the US which would cut oil use by 125 million barrels per year.

That's bullshit. There have been plenty of rescued miners in China. Here's 115 coming out after a week underground in April:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36157561/ns/world_news-asiapacific/

That's not to say it isn't a dangerous industry, though:

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2010/1014/China-applauds-Chile-mine-rescue-avoids-awkward-safety-comparisons

In other news, the government is making credit card companies notify you when they invoke the fine print in the contract you signed, forcing people to pay for health insurance even if they think they "never get sick", and charging a fine for leaving your own car unlocked.

I started to post in order to question your claim, googled, and found lots of news making similar unfounded claims. Every article or blog said piles of people were affected, but then they give a single example. In many cases it's the same example. I'm not questioning that it happens, but it seems more likely to be

1) legitimate claims where BMI-licensed music was played in a place without a license, and they legitimately need to pay (according to law, not me)
2) a number of anecdotes of intimidation without any actual legal action, where either nothing happens or the owner gives up

What I do not see is anywhere that BMI or ASCAP have ever shut someone down. They intimidate, the owner rolls over, and the owner shuts the place down. If you're clicking the reply button to chastize me, read on please before doing so. They can claim anything they want, but "try to shut [them] down"? Only through intimidation. Kinda like me repeatedly asking for my two dollars.

This article has the claim that it's happening all over but has a single example and one that's not clearly legit or not. It also says that license costs are being pressured down, probably due to people not wanting to pay license fees:
http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Music/2009/0109/p14s01-almp.html

Here's "one" illigitimate claim, can't tell if it's the same one:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090109/1823043352.shtml

Here's a guy who keeps getting invoices, but because he hasn't been caught with licenseable music nothing has happened, which is typically how it happens and not actually shutting anyone down.
http://www.viewnews.com/2010/VIEW-May-18-Tue-2010/Henderson/35878176.html

Here's an entire essay using the word extortion instead of license, and they managed a single example (I skimmed it), and it names the musician, not the places that hired him.
http://fskrealityguide.blogspot.com/2010/08/bmiascapsesac-legal-extortion-scam.html

It links to this guy, with the title being "HOW ONE INDEPENDENT MUSICIAN DEFEATED BMI". Although he didn't get hired by these places, the US Copyright Office told BMI to sodomize themselves with a rusty baton.
http://www.woodpecker.com/writing/essays/phillips.html

In short, there is no difference between the establishments that shouldn't pay BMI but do, and the people who give their bank accounts to Nigerian scammers. They make it bad for everybody, and they need to grow a sack. Go ahead and sue me, I have playlists for every night I've been in business. Hell, I taped every show. Tell me what night, and what was played, and I'll show you the video.

Businesses shut themselves down out of ignorance. BMI and ASCAP are some shady bastards who need to be beaten with pillows until bruised at the very least, but business does this to itself.

No kidding...especially the same day they raided an auction house to recover the fingerprint card of a guy who has been dead for like 25 years

"Langner's analysis also shows, step by step, what happens after "Stuxnet finds its target. Once Stuxnet identifies the critical function running on a programmable logic controller, or PLC, made by Siemens, the giant industrial controls company, the malware takes control. One of the last codes Stuxnet sends is an enigmatic “DEADF007.” Then the fireworks begin, although the precise function being overridden is not known, Langner says. It may be that the maximum safety setting for RPMs on a turbine is overridden, or that lubrication is shut off, or some other vital function shut down. Whatever it is, Stuxnet overrides it, Langner’s analysis shows." from http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0921/Stuxnet-malware-is-weapon-out-to-destroy-Iran-s-Bushehr-nuclear-plant/(page)/3

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0921/Stuxnet-malware-is-weapon-out-to-destroy-Iran-s-Bushehr-nuclear-plant
You have a USB device talking to Microsoft connecting to Siemens "something" then to some industrial system that has to work really well 24/7 and or to exact tolerances.
Microsoft is the way in, at it seem to be looking for something, like a key and a lock.
When it finds a match, interesting a 'new' things may happen over time to some industrial system.
Phone home and uninstaller seem to be part of the deal http://defense-update.com/wp/20100930_stuxnet-under-the-microscope.html
Security certificates would be floating around the web or could be stolen, bought.

This is turning into something right out of the Art of War

Here's a link to the actual (very readable) report: http://www.iihs.org/news/rss/pr092810.html

And the original article, I think: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2010/0928/Bans-on-texting-while-driving-don-t-reduce-crashes-study-says

In an article about a government having sponsored a global worm attack possibly targeted at an Iranian nuclear facility - you think it's surprising if two (not the whole group) of IAEA inspectors were less than truthful about what they were really doing?

Going through your posts it's obvious you pursuing an agenda and at no point are you trying to deduce the actual facts behind anything related to the topic.

Facts: The Iranian supply of uranium is closely monitored. So are their facilities. It's impossible for Iran to even begin enriching uranium above power production pureness without that being noticed.

The Bushehr reactor is not useful for producing weapons-grade plutonium, and the Russians have a deal to keep all the waste themselves.

On September 6, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released a new paper on the implementation of Iran’s Safeguards Agreement which reported that the agency has “continued to verify the non-diversion of declared nuclear material in Iran to any military or other special purpose.”

[---]

IAEA inspectors have had open access to the gas conversion facility at Isfahan, the enrichment facility at Natanz, and the new lightwater reactor at Bushehr, as well as the secondary enrichment facility under construction at Qom.

The September 6 IAEA report confirming for the zillionth time the non-diversion of nuclear material should be the last word on the subject until the next time they say the same thing: Iran, a long-time signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), is not in violation of its Safeguards Agreement.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2010/0917/Reality-check-Iran-is-not-a-nuclear-threat

But hey - why should you let facts get in the way of your personal crusade. If you were worried about nuclear weapons in the region you wouldn't think talking about how the US keeps nucelar inspections out of Israel would be "changing the subject".

Iran complies with IAEA inspections, and their reports state categorically that Iran is not trying to create weapons. This little factoid would've taken you less time to verify than the time you took writing just a few of all your posts in this discussion thread.

So, one can only speculate as to why you didn't.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0921/Stuxnet-malware-is-weapon-out-to-destroy-Iran-s-Bushehr-nuclear-plant
Stop filling your critical industries with MS products that cannot use USB without risk.
Comments like this would many go hmmm "a precision, military-grade cyber missile deployed early last year to seek out and destroy one real-world target of high importance – a target still unknown."
The NSA is tapped into every big telco system within and outside the USA, they have the software and hardware to track and sort most issues, voice prints ect.
This sounds more like small next step, legal standing in some areas. Then the next.
Do you really want your entire telco system watching for you 24/7 without a court order?
Just to keep a cost cutting, rust belt network up?

http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2010/0304/As-Florida-Keys-residents-confront-rising-sea-levels-what-lessons

"Batshit crazy"

That phrase sounds a bit over the top, but it turns out the latest darling of the Tea Party, Christine O'Donnel, was into witchcraft at one point:

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/The-Vote/2010/0920/Latest-challenge-facing-Christine-O-Donnell-witchcraft-TV-clip

Idiocracy is coming true right before our eyes.

The fracking you did previously is quite different from the fracking gas companies are doing right now. The EPA has asked the drilling companies to disclose the chemicals. Of course, they don't want to. Of course, they also claim none of the chemicals are known to get into the water.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2010/0909/EPA-to-natural-gas-companies-Give-details-on-fracking-chemicals

He's just burning some books. Our soldiers are being attacked because they are occupying peoples' homes and supporting a new government they don't all accept. The argument that burning these books would put our soldiers in more danger is not only incorrect, but irrelevant as here we are...giving up our rights and freedoms because we fear the terrorists. Another victory for fundies.

Talk about gross oversimplification. Our soldiers are being attacked because the people they displaced from power want it back. Oh, by the way, the people we displaced from power are Islamic Extremists, who deny basic education to women, recruit children into their armies, and are all around bad guys. The "regular" people of Afghanistan are all too happy to be out from the thumb of the Taliban. Not that our actions have been overtly friendly with civilians as of late, but that's the cost of a guerrilla war.

All depends on the drivers you have, and what they expect.

In Germany they even have crazy towns that got rid of most of its traffic signs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sf-O5o4aqcs
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2010/0331/What-happens-when-you-remove-all-traffic-signs-A-German-town-finds-out

But somehow it works OK.

In Netherlands too: http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Bright-Green/2008/0625/do-traffic-laws-cause-accidents

In India many don't seem to care much about traffic signs either, so is that the same thing? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjrEQaG5jPM

Would that system work well in China? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw-ZlHXs4Q8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj4LrSxjTIM

All depends on the drivers you have, and what they expect.

In Germany they even have crazy towns that got rid of most of its traffic signs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sf-O5o4aqcs
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2010/0331/What-happens-when-you-remove-all-traffic-signs-A-German-town-finds-out

But somehow it works OK.

In Netherlands too: http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Bright-Green/2008/0625/do-traffic-laws-cause-accidents

In India many don't seem to care much about traffic signs either, so is that the same thing? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjrEQaG5jPM

Would that system work well in China? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw-ZlHXs4Q8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj4LrSxjTIM

>No other country has so many illegal immigrants per capita

This is almost certainly false (it's difficult to count illegal immigrants, so I can't say with 100% certainty, and neither can you). The highest estimate I've seen for the US is 20 million (the conventional estimate is ~12 million), making them less than 7% of the total population. Greece has about the same percentage (that was just the first country I bothered to check, based on an educated guess). In South Africa, estimates place the percentage at over 10%.

>illegal immigrants are more likely to commit crimes

Ignoring the crime of entering the country illegally (which would make your statement merely a tautology), this also does not seem to be borne out by evidence. If you look at the FBI crime statistics by city, you'll find that there is a distinct overlap between safe cities and those with large immigrant (and illegal immigrant) populations. Take a look at this chart. For both violent and property crime, San Jose, Los Angeles, San Diego, and El Paso(!), all with large immigrant populations, have relatively low crime rates. Whereas the most dangerous cities -- St. Louis, Buffalo, DC, Detroit, Baltimore -- all have relatively low immigrant populations.

For reals: Mining the ocean floor - CSMonitor.com No one has successfully extracted hydrates, after almost a century of trying. Indeed it looks as if they might find application as a superior method of transporting gas than CNG/LNG: NETL Researchers Develop Way to Rapidly and Continuously Form Synthetic Natural Gas Hydrates

I call "horseshit" on that: http://lancemannion.typepad.com/lance_mannion/2009/05/death-will-not-be-taking-a-holiday.html To boot, here's a better explanation of the reason why people are crying wolf about Social Security: http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0127/p09s01-coop.html

Some of you may recall the story about school administrators using laptop cameras to spy on its students ( link to article ). In that case, no charges were could be brought against the school administrators. How is it that students doing the same to their administrators are treated as criminals, then? This world is so confusing.

There are people starving around the world. Are you trying to save them? Would you donate that $0.50 a day or whatever it is they usually ask for on TV?

As for the embryos, what about them? They won't be growing up without a woman unless we can make an artificial uterus. Can you say, with a straight face, that you or your mother or wife or daughter would take these bits of cells and carry them to term?

What about children without parents? Children that need to be adopted or fostered? Have you taken them in?

Does this sanctity of life exist beyond the uterus? Do you vote to improve the quality of life of those born or is that up to the free market? Do you think a privately run, for profit penal system is just? That having the highest incarceration rate in the world isn't a sign of a very sick system? Are you for or against the death penalty?