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Yes, it's not like 97% of American teens play computer games or over 50% of American adults

I'm all for the argument being pro gamers, but your talking about Fox News here...

Why do the media and your government present those passengers as heroes?

Because, those passengers did something heroic.

On United Airlines Flight 93, black box recordings revealed that crew and passengers attempted to seize control of the plane from the hijackers after learning through phone calls that similarly hijacked planes had been crashed into buildings that morning.[21] According to the transcript of Flight 93's recorder, one of the hijackers gave the order to roll the plane once it became evident that they would lose control of the plane to the passengers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9/11
(and the actual news item sourced by Wikipedia:http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,191520,00.html)

They were the only ones on any of the planes (besides the hijackers themselves), who knew the plan was to crash the plane into a building.

They could have chosen to disbelieve the information ("Who is crazy enough to do that? We should just wait."), instead, they chose to make sure that the plane they were on could NOT be used in that way.

I am sure they were all hoping they would live (who doesn't?), and they knew they were going to die if they did nothing, but their actions kept the terrorists from achieving their objective.

Bluntly, they were the only ones who were in the position to do something, and they acted, even though that action cost them their lives.

In that way they became Martyrs. Bitterly ironic given that they were the only way to stop other supposed "Martyrs" plans.

Yes, it's not like 97% of American teens play computer games or over 50% of American adults

Strangely enough, most of the world aren't Americans, and this story isn't about America either.

Yes, it's not like 97% of American teens play computer games or over 50% of American adults

Strangely enough, most of the world aren't Americans, and this story isn't about America either.

Since the overwhelming majority of people neither play, or possibly even understand, computer games, its a soft touch for some 'fear inducement' followed by 'and I can save the children from it'.

Yes, it's not like 97% of American teens play computer games or over 50% of American adults

Since the overwhelming majority of people neither play, or possibly even understand, computer games, its a soft touch for some 'fear inducement' followed by 'and I can save the children from it'.

Yes, it's not like 97% of American teens play computer games or over 50% of American adults

All of the WMD's we found in Iraq were unstable chemical weapons... weapons which would have simply neutralized themselves over time, and which you would have a hard time killing more than 100 people without a real delivery system. By the estimates of the National Ground Intelligence Center, the 500 or so shells found contained degraded chemical weapons that appeared to be manufactured "before 1991." The report refers to them as degraded but "Hazardous and potentially lethal," with the DoD spokesperson referring to them as "not in usable condition." "Potentially lethal?" That doesn't sound like mass destruction to me.

Mustard and Sarin gas are bad, grant you, but A: they're short-range weapons, B: they degrade over time, and C: Saddam thought Al-Queda was a bunch of religious nutballs and wanted nothing to do with them.

Really, it all comes down to risk. Clinton authorized Desert Fox against Iraq to force Saddam to play straight with weapons inspectors. He eventually complied, and the risk of actual WMD's was ruled to be minimal. Bush kicked out weapons inspectors for a full-scale invasion, and the risk of actual WMD's was difinitively ruled to be minimal.

Also, while Obama has said that Iran needs to straighten up and Secretary of State Clinton is saying that they have the opportunity to return to the community of nations, that's a far cry from Bush putting them on an Axis of Evil and making them a black-and-white adversary.

Not everyone is a news junkie and not everyone is going to remember who Bill Ayers is, as the last time he was a regular topic of discussion in the proess in October of last year, nearly 4 months ago. Theodp was simply trying to remind the reader of who Bill Ayers and why he was noteworthy in the news.

So Bill Ayers was noteworthy because Sarah Palin said something about him? That's pretty thin, considering he was in the news well before she came along. Palin is irrelevant to the topic and really does make /. look like yet-another-left-wing-blog. Certainly, we wouldn't want to refresh anyone's memory with the reason his name was in the news was because of the NYC police buildings he tried to blow up, which was in the news because of his non-affiliation, affiliation, with The One. Even just a simple link to his wikipedia page would have been sufficient. If wikipedia has any credibility at all, the issue of his past was raised by foreign press - not even by the /. favorite Fox News. Instead, we a get a cheap shot on the front page like somehow she had something to do with the failure of the Chicago school system to produce any meaningful improvement for the vast amount of money thrown at the problem.

I don't know kdawson personally, so I hesitate to make assumptions. But anytime there is any chance to make a smart ass political remark in the summary - even completely out of context as it is here, it seems to come from so far out in left field (pun intended) that it just makes him* look ridiculous, and honestly, dumb.

* As an editor, he could have exercised some reasonable judgment and taken the remark out because it was irrelevant, or found another submission of the story in the queue. /. isn't a Daily Kos FFA. If I wanted that, I would go there.

I think I remember that; but I don't remember it being a coal mine

'

It was coal, "".

Well, roofing is one of the more dangerous jobs in the USA, if you go installing solar panels on all the roofs in the USA you're bound to get some accidents.

Solar panels don't need to be cited on all roofs, though I'd more roofs with them. SciAm's "A Solar Grand Plan" details how PVs can be cited in the deserts of the Southwest. There'd be few if any roofs to climb.

As for the semiconductors, the main use for a nuclear plant would be control computers - and a single roof's worth of solar panels would be far more silicon than is needed in a nuclear plant.

However neither solar nor wind genies need much concrete and steel whereas nuclear power plants require vast amounts of both. And they are high in embedded energy.

GenIII plant will be something like 1.2GW vs You need a lot of steel/concrete for 300 some odd 198 meter tall towers and 126 meter wide blades.

First off, maybe you typed the first link above wrong, I get "requested URL not found". As for the DailyKos link, I'd like to see where those numbers come from. Footings for wind turbines might take up more space than a nuclear power plant but they can be spread around. With big enough backyard, you can put one in your backyard, which I'd like to do, along with PVs on my roof.

Oh, there's one more thing I keep on forgetting. I read an article I think in SciAm that nuclear power plants need more water than any other type of power plant. Throughout the world aquifers are being depleted faster than they can be recharged. Where is the water need to run nuclear power plants going to come from? However it is, nuclear power would not be profitable and Wall Street would not pay for it if government did not subsidize it.

Falcon

"What was done with the seed saved from the India Hemp last summer? It ought, all of it, to have been sewn again; that not only a stock of seed sufficient for my own purposes might have been raised, but to have disseminated the seed to others; as it is more valuable than the common Hemp." - George Washington in a letter to his plantation manager

Indian hemp, or Cannabis indica did not have more or better fiber, but some indica strains had been bred over a long period for THC. The European C. Sativas of Washington's period had been bred exclusively for fiber.

Washington also had the female plants separated from the males, which is helpful mostly for getting drug-grade flowers.

So yes, there is an excellent chance that Washington used cannabis as a drug.

It was not listed in the U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP, official dispensable/prescribable pharmaceuticals list) until 1870, and it was not dropped until 1941.

The use of marijuana as a drug goes back far longer than that. Here's a recent discovery:

"An ancient Caucasian people, probably the Indo-European-speaking Yuezhi whose fair-haired mummies keep turning up in Xinjiang province, seem to have buried one of their shamans with a whopping 789 grams of high-potency pot 2,700 years ago. ...
The ancient Greek historian Herodotus relates how the Scythians, Iranian-speaking nomads who roamed the steppes to the west of the Yuezhi in the first millennium B.C., liked to throw marijuana onto bonfires to induce trancelike states. It's possible the buried shaman followed similar practices."
 

Yes, it's illegal when it shouldn't be. And it's not cheap because it's not legal.

Make it freely available, usage will soar and the damage WILL be greater than tobacco.

Alcohol and tobacco are freely available but where's all the damage from them? Fact is is alcohol is more dangerous than marijuana. And while smoking tobacco causes cancer, smoking marijuana "Does Not Raise Lung Cancer Risk". "Study Finds No Cancer-Marijuana Connection. However "The effectiveness of cannabis for treating symptoms related to HIV/AIDS is widely recognized."

Cannabis/Marijuana is carcinogenic, and about four times as carcinogenic as tobacco.

Where's your data backing up your statement? I'll make my own statement and provide a link to back it up: "Marijuana Does Not Raise Lung Cancer Risk". It's actually not my statement but the title on an article.

Falcon

That's something I don't hear talked about much--the health affects caused by smoking pot, as in smoke and tars being sucked into the lungs. I'm assuming it's as bad as tobacco?

Actually marijuana isn't as bad cancer wise as tobacco. Marijuana Does Not Raise Lung Cancer Risk. It may be worse for other things, but as the story the thread links to says, it also provides some benefits.

Falcon

I never said he didn't give them a lot to work with, but I do believe that they took a certain amount of joy in beating on Bush.

Please, do us all a favor. Take a valium before posting on Slashdot. We should all be able to have conversations without resorting to name calling. (I know, I know... "are you new here?")

I don't believe that everyone in the press was beating up on Bush b/c they are partisan, although I do believe a lot of them are. For example, Helen Thomas admitted in an interview [2:40-3:25] that she was not only a liberal, but that she believes that all reporters have not choice to be anything other than liberal because of what they see, and the access that they have to the "Truth".

Ignoring the commentary of the blowhards that flank the interview, I still find it disconcerting that this woman has been reporting on every president since Kennedy, and feels no need to try and stay objective. If a reporter made the same claims, but as a conservative, they'd be crucified by the rest of the media.

From the Summary:

"Black holes...a few niggling doubts..."

Yes, it is well known that niglings begin life by coming out of black holes, but wouldn't it be wiser to provide birf control to the black holes given the state of the economy? Fortunately Obama recently authorized abortion funding to ass-backward savage lands which are not specified officially but are known to be Africa, proud motherland of the apes, chimpanzees, macaques, baboons

>>>It never was $150,00 per song. RTFA.

Yeah. ONE article. Do you think *this* is the only case the RIAA is prosecuting??? There are many other cases, and you can google them yourself, but here's just one sample involving over 200 people. And yes they are being sued $150,000 per song:

The music industry has turned its big legal guns on Internet music-swappers -- including a 12-year-old New York City girl who thought downloading songs was fun. Brianna LaHara said she was frightened to learn she was among the hundreds of people sued yesterday by giant music companies in federal courts around the country.

"I got really scared. My stomach is all turning," Brianna said last night at the city Housing Authority apartment where she lives with her mom and her 9-year-old brother. Brianna was among 261 people sued for copying thousands of songs via popular Internet file-sharing software -- and thousands more suits could be on the way.

Brianna and the others sued yesterday under federal copyright law face penalties of up to $150,000 per song.....

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,96797,00.html

Thank you for standing up to the trendy lemmings and their "global warming" hysteria. Facts are that we are actually entering into a long period of global cooling.

In the words of the eminent Dr. Zbigniew Jaworowski:

The significance of the fact, immediately grasped by any competent climatologist, is that glacial advance is an early warning sign of Northern Hemisphere chilling of the sort that can bring on an Ice Age. The last Little Ice Age continued from about 1400 to 1850. It was followed by a period of slight warming. There are a growing number of signs that we may be descending into another Little Ice Age, all the mountains of global warming propaganda aside.

Revisionist history. It wasn't Slashdot that made people think Vista was slower than XP.

it was Infoworld:
http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/03/17/12TC-vista-versus-xp_6.html

and Fox news:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,314141,00.html

and PC World:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/129410/vista_ui_is_a_step_back_for_microsoft.html

and MICROSOFT when they told the gaming industry Vista was 10 to 15 percent slower (or virtually identical in your world)

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/027/1003027/vista-gaming-will-be-10-to-15-per-cent-slower-than-xp

(links from searching vista slower) Go on, now you can talk about how that was before the service pack, or pre-release, or whatever, but that is when reputations are built. Windows 7 is getting praise because the FIRST IMPRESSION is that it doesn't suck. Vista's first impression was that it generally was slower and used more memory. It isn't all about different caching strategies or Vista wouldn't be almost unusable on netbooks (and if that weren't the case Microsoft wouldn't have agreed to keep selling XP to netbook vendors). So give it a fucking rest and go troll some people who are stupid enough to believe you.

I wish it caused people like that to lose sleep at night. The really sick thing is that it is unlikely that it causes the people who push these cases to lose any sleep.

Guess they didn't like my submission of this story, so here's the original news story and one from Faux News.
Similar incidents in Ohio and Indiana.

DURHAM, N.C. -- Voter excitement, always up before a presidential election, is pushing registration through the roof so far this year - with more than 3.5 million people rushing to join in the historic balloting, according to an Associated Press survey that offers the first national snapshot.Figures are up for blacks, women and young people. Rural and city. South and North.

From Fox News.

Nearly half of newly-registered voters in Ohio are aged 18-29.

From fivethirtyeight

And you said:

56.8% of the voting-age population voted in 2008, up from 55.3% in 2004, but below 1960, 64, and 68 at 63.1%, 61.9%, and 60.8% respectively.

So I'm to understand that for the three elections in the 60's, the voter turnout went down by 1.2 and then 1.1 points, and for the 2008 election voter turnout went up by 1.5 points. Notice the difference in turnout for 04-08 is the largest of the numbers you cite.

Voter turnout for the 1960, `64, and `68 election are the highest in recent memory. As long as we're picking elections arbitrarily why didn't you go with 1980, `84, and `88, when the turnout was 52.6%, 53.1%, and 50.1%? I suspect it's because doing so you would have torn your argument apart.

So I know its just a small thing to ask but can we have a president who doesn't desecrate our own flag

Flag etiquette

Here in Texas we don't need any fancy license-plate-scanning computers to notice our judges.
We just put "State Judge" on their license plates!

It especially helps them find their ride after a few drinks.

Heck, they're even kind enough to return the favor :)

How about a society where I, a 250 pounds muscle freak do not use my physical power to force you, the 100 pounds computer nerd, to do anything you don't want to, just because I am civilized? No need for guns.

There always have been and always will be "evil people". Your utopia simply doesn't exist.

Gun owners don't want to shoot people. People that concealed carry are are far from "trigger happy", it's a last resort. No, having a gun doesn't automatically make you safe, but it does even the odds. If only the "bad guys" have guns, they will do far more harm. Remember the off-duty police officer that shot the man at the mall that was shooting innocent shoppers? It would have been many times worse if there wasn't someone armed other than the "bad guy". http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,251864,00.html

I'm a 115 pound woman. What would you have me do if some 250 pound man broke into my home with the intention of harming me? I'm just supposed to lay down and take it and not be able to defend myself? No thank you!

Suzanne Hupp's testimony about the 2nd amendment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1u0Byq5Qis

http://www.a-human-right.com/

In some respects, this is the fault of religious "leaders." Christians in the pew are in many cases just blindly following their pastors, priests, elders, and ministers who, instead of preaching the gospel, are preaching the same pro-war politics their congregation hears on the Sean Hannity radio show or else they are not denouncing the debacle in Iraq for what it is

Yeah, there isn't a single member of the religious community that's denounced the Iraq War. And the 50-some percent of the American population that's opposed to the war is entirely made up of Atheists as well.

Obviously, an aggressive, preemptive war against a country with no navy or air force, an economy in ruins after a decade of sanctions, and that was no threat to the United States is not a just war.

You left out the part about the leader of that country oppressing 2/3'rds of his population and killing his own people with poison gas. Mind you I'm not convinced that's sufficient reason for the US to get involved but at least try and tell the whole story.

A Christian fighting for the U.S. Government in Iraq doesn't fall under any of these circumstances.

Most soldiers would tell you that they are soldiers first and Christians second. You follow the orders of your Commander-in-Chief and here's a hint: His name isn't Jesus.

After Bush launched his nebulous "war on terrorism" by having Afghanistan bombed back to the Stone Age

Afghanistan was already in the Stone Age. Perhaps you forgot the part where the Government of Afghanistan harbored the man who murdered thousands of Americans and refused to hand him over to face justice?

Christians who support or remain silent about Bush's "war against terrorism" are terribly inconsistent

Wow, religious people aren't always consistent. Do you want a +5 for that insightful observation?

The fact that the president himself never killed anyone is irrelevant - Adolf Hitler never gassed a single Jew.

I'm surprised you managed to go 10 paragraphs without Godwin'ing yourself....

that it is honorable for Christians to enthusiastically participate in U.S. wars of aggression

Wars of aggression? Afghanistan is a war of aggression? Hmmph.

...if you were a complete moron who's trying to have his own set of facts to back up his opinions.

It normally takes a few years to achieve this much scandal but he's not even in office and he has corruption (Blogo's relationship to Chief-of-staff Emmanuael

Ah, the "associations" bullshit again. Emanuel was a prominent congressman from Illinois - and Blago was the governor of Illinois. OF COURSE there will have been times when they have talked. Even Fox says there was only one conversation between them on the subject of Obama's replacement to the Senate.

Bill Richardson

Withdrew his name for consideration as he came under investigation. What's your point?

David Rubin

Who donated money to Richardson in an alleged pay-to-play scheme...which is Obama's fault how, exactly?

AND backpedaling on stated policy (withdraw from Iraq), etc.

Just how stupid are you, really? Obama's position on Iraq has been nothing but consistent: a flexible withdrawl over the course of 16 months.

If you want to bitch about Obama, there are plenty of substantive criticisms to make - his FISA flip flop, having his head up Israel's ass, picking the bigoted Rick Warren to be a part of his inauguration - without having to make dumb shit up.

• 2000: Israel/Palestine: Armed Attacks on Civilians Condemned
• 2001: Israeli Missiles Kill Two Kids
• 2002: Panel to look into civilian deaths in 2002 IAF attack on Shehadeh
• 2003: Secrecy over shoot-to-kill fear in Gaza, Two journalists have been gunned down by Israeli troops
• 2004: TOTALS FOR 2004: Israelis: 8 Palestinians: 188
• 2005: Israeli troops say they were given shoot-to-kill order
• 2006: Teenager killed as missile explodes near school bus
• 2007: Israeli army says three children killed in Gaza were playing
• 2008: Palestinian group says Israelis killed 68 children in Gaza in year
• 2009: Israel Hits Second U.N. School, Blasts Way Into Southern Gaza

That's bullshit. Stating that "It's just the soldier's job" is the same nonsense that it was at the Nuremberg trials. Soldiers are people and they are expected to refuse both immoral and illegal orders.

maybe we shouldn't vote in bloodthirsty psychos

As opposed to the Israeli leadership?
Belgium bars Sharon war crimes trial
The man who would testify against Sharon is blown up. Was this another targeted killing?

I make no claims that the Hamas leadership is a bunch of nice guys, but you may want to do some more reseach on Israel. I'm sure you can find at least as many bad things to say about Hamas, but as the saying goes:
"Two wrongs don't make a right."

The IDF has always attacked military targets

Well, now you're just factually wrong: officials HAVE come out and said that such information has thwarted attacks.

And every single time they've done so, the details have not panned out. The point is that we get all the backslapping and public self-congratulation for the bullshit terrorists, but never for any real ones.

Like this - which oops turned out not to be about blowing up the plane (after all, he only had SOME parts of a bomb, not all parts, no detonator, and nothing to mix with the nitro in order to make it volatile) but about seeking revenge on some people at his destination. So, while the guy probably belongs in jail, his jailing was not part of the purview of stopping terrorist attacks on airplanes.

Heh, that would be no surprise. Though ya'd think that a man like Steve could afford more modern sex change therapies.

Steve Jobs: "Hey, since I've had cancer, maybe it would be a good idea to starve my body of precious amino acids and other nutrients! Wow, this new-age voodoo stuff sure does work wonders, I've lost 50 pounds in 2 months and I haven't taken a shit in 2 years! How neat!"

Remember, folks. This is the kind of shit that happens to you when you do stupid shit like turn to Scientology for medical advice. I hate to see a good man ruin himself, but he's really asking for it.

Havent the US supreme court drowned the notion before?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,470524,00.html

Oh, nevermind.... WONT SOMEBODY THINK OF THE NON-EXSCISTANT CHILDREN!

This is old news. It has happened before. Case and Point.

Ahh you can smell the Elitism in this post.

"I will kill you with my SUV for questioning my way of life"

"You make less money than me with a small car so your an idiot"

This person HAD to vote for Bush, and really wanted Cheney as Prez.

LOL

You got the Global Warming part right, but the massive coral die
off due to the oceans trying to absorb all the CO2 and toxins
will have its own consequences.

As you seem very republican I will give you proof from the
only source the Republitards trust.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,202215,00.html

Stick that in your pipe and smoke it lippy.

Ooops...sorry to burst your little bubble there pal, but according to the nice election official I talked to while waiting in line we didn't actually USE the electronic vote except for those "early results" that the TV news channels so love. According to him the vote was counted by scanning the paper ballots, which thanks to the voting machine you didn't get any crap like what we are seeing in Minnesota and that if the Dems, Repubs, or Indies contested anything in a district(and all three were allowed to watch the scanning) then that district would be recounted by hand.

So sorry, you might want to go back to the hanging chad or have some Minnesota style fun in YOUR home state, but I'll take the nice printout machine that makes sure there isn't anyone guessing my "intent" thank you very much.

Wow...

I'll just throw this out here: the uneducated masses of the US believe it is a democracy. The US is not. It is a Constitutional Republic. The key factor being Republic, where a minority can hold power. That means the wealthiest, charismatic, or powerful people will hold positions. A small group of people, even if they were elected, could not change the government, since it would necessitate a majority vote in both the House and the Senate with the President's seal of approval, or a 2/3 majority. There would never be a majority in favor of reform because those in power would be voting to give up power.

As far as the UN goes, it wastes money like all other governments. Fox News reports of a mural where the cost was taken out of relief funds. Also, the US pays 22% of the UN budget. Japan contributes 19%, with Germany at 8.66%, rounding out the top 3. I don't think you can claim the US doesn't pay a fair share.

Do you remember the UN limiting criticism of Islam? http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/01/news/UN-GEN-UN-Free-Speech.php Something is seriously wrong with the UN if they can limit free speech.

If they are in low earth orbit odds of a shuttle hitting space junk http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,418741,00.html are about 1-300 (I assume over a week period). This means with such a large area odds of a collision to be over 99% at low earth orbit. Now to beam power down that would be geo- which is still pretty crowded ... For low earth orbit below 600km gravity eventually cleans up the mess but not geostationary: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2003/07/16/2003059688

Lets hold out some (false?) hope that it does not get as bad as the International Olympic Committee host country "Selection" process corruption
I felt really sorry for all the French waiting out on the streets to celebrate London Vs Paris 2012 Olympic host "Selection" - it was so damn obvious they would not get it from the start. Your country defiantly don't get to host the Olympics for vocally opposing the Rape of Iraq - call it a political knuckle lashing punishment for not bending over, if you will. "Surprise. London won." (How about that FOX news story sarcasm, surprise indeed).

But Turkey have played good little lap dogs, pulled their weight in the war effortS though. And Surprise, guess who won the news rights to their blood-money-reward^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H Successful Olympic Host Bid , why its Bush families close friend, Ex-Australian con Rupert Murdoch of Fox news fame Fox TV wins Olympic TV rights in Turkey for 2016 games

Anybody who thinks this is not all about backroom deals, political reward and punishment is just too damn naive.

Perhaps the Earth's magnetic poles are about to flip.

Supposedly it won't kill us all....

Chrome is light-years better

Yeah, but is mo better ?

Don't call it a "black" hole. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2008/07/11/texas-county-official-sees-race-term-black-hole/

On November 4, engineers and scientists throughout NASA and academia scratched their collective heads and asked, "Which Obama is the real Obama?"

Now, we have the answer. Obama recently returned to the idea of sacrificing NASA programs in favor of his political agenda.

As Obama dismantles the American space program, perhaps we Americans should look to Japan for leadership in the peaceful development of space.

and as for "a reputable and verifiable source for everything you said."

So, you don't watch the news, Old people and young or "special" children are the number one customers.
http://media.www.dailyvidette.com/media/storage/paper420/news/2008/02/18/News/Nintendo.Wii.Used.For.Rehabilitation.Purposes.wiihab-3215373.shtml
http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2007/02/nintendos-wii-in-nursing-home.html
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,260990,00.html
http://www.engadget.com/2007/02/23/nintendos-wii-a-hit-with-the-geriatric-set/
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art58580.asp
http://www.shortnews.com/start.cfm?id=65566
http://www.specialkids.com/my_weblog/2008/09/research-shows-rehabilitation-benefits-of-using-nintendo-wii.html
http://www.nypsystem.org/press/2008/04/st-marys-at-forefront-of-thera.html
https://www.mywii.com.au/NewsDetail.aspx?id=2150

That is actually not true. What is death? When your heart stops? Are you dead when you stop breathing? Rigor Mortis? Properly diagnosed brain death seems like the only way so far, but the laws are far behind the science on that one.

Most of the time when I hear crap like "By most estimates..." with out any sign of a source to back it up, I attribute the remainder of the sentence the same amount of credence as the sound of my coworker's ass cheaks flapping together after an especially hanious fart.

Maybe he's right, but with out anything to back up his opinion, he just looks like some shill who is lobying for some organization with a strong financial incentive for not seeing net nuetrality laws and being allowed to run deep packet inspection.

The best I can find is Ellacoya's June 2007 report that put P2P at 37% of total bandwidth. http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070618005912&newsLang=en

A wee bit shy of the 50% the author is claiming.

Another obvious way to see what the impact is would be to look at a tool like http://www.internettrafficreport.com/30day.htm to see if the change to UDP and expected rise in bandwidth actually effects TCP communication. If it is as gloom and doom as the author makes it out to be, we should see a steady rise in lost packets as the P2P users upgrade to the new UDP defaulting version.

This report from March 2008 http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,342988,00.html sites Arbor Networks (they bought out Ellacoya in early 2008) claims P2P traffic represents about a third of internet traffic.

I'm all for making a plan to be able to react if a problem is detected. But lets not get all worked up over someone's questionable theories.

-Rick

..blaming McDonald's for heart attacks caused by fatty foods.

Agreed, shit happens - unfortunately all it takes is one paranoid idiot/asshole with some degree of power and that is not necessarily as philisophical as we ./'ers are, and the end result is scary as it is maddening...

A McDonald's worker in Union City, Ga., was arrested and jailed Thursday night for putting too much salt and pepper on a police officer's hamburger, MyFoxAtlanta reported Friday.

-or-

Search Google for "mcdonalds arrested salt hamburger"

Look, the EU just smacked down France's three strikes internet piracy law. Aland has problems regarding snus too and their duck hunting has been trampled on. It clearly isn't that easy to just flout the laws. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/finland/1510554/Tiny-island-that's-ready-to-stop-Europe-in-its-tracks.html

Flouting the laws doesn't mean those laws aren't made by a government. American tax protesters have argued that income tax is illegal and won in some instances. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,94630,00.html Mind you most lose but that's the case with the EU. Some countries may ignore thing the EU but that doesn't mean everyone can.

If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck then it is a duck. This applies to governments too.

Astronaut loses spatula while testing heat shield tile repair process.

The pieces are finally starting to come together...

• Skynet was first introduced in a film staring Arnold Schwarzenegger.
• Arnold Schwarzenegger was born on July 30th.
• On July 30th, 2007 (10 years after Skynet became aware), CrunchGear runs an article about MojoPac, a program that "Puts Your Desktop On A USB Drive". The very type of interface the DoD now sees as a threat. In the article they state that when you use MojoPac, "...the host computer is oblivious to anything going on."
• Foxnews reported the DoD attack on November 20th, 2008. On the same day, the music news magazine, named "Mojo" (following suit with the "MojoPac" software name), ran a snippet saying, "Gun's and Roses are currently previewing all the tracks from Chinese Democracy via their MySpace page." MySpace is an obvious front for Skynet to keep tabs on the younger generations that may pose a threat in the future.
• However, the Mojo article about "Chinese Democracy" was Skynet's way of mocking us in an ironic way that only Skynet finds funny. You see, Arnold Schwarzenegger visited China meeting with "700 Special Olympics athletes ... to focus world attention on the Special Olympics World Summer Games ... held in Shanghai in 2007." Here we see 2007 again, representing the 10 year anniversary of Skynet's sentience, along with Arnold, the celebrity that announced it's existance.

It's all so clear now.

Entertainment attorney Jay Cooper, who specializes in music and copyright issues at Los Angeles-based Greenberg Traurig, is convinced that Nesson will not persuade the federal court to strike down the copyright law.

He said the statutory damages it awards enable recording companies to get compensation in cases where it is difficult to prove actual damages.

The record companies have echoed that line of defense.

Umm... ok. So, you feel entitled to compensation even though you can't prove anything. I'm sorry, but this calls for a huge:

WTF!!??

I submitted a story about this Monday, Constitutionality of P2P law "under attack" (rejected) after seeing it in an AP story in the Chicago Tribune. That story quoted NYCL, who it of course called Ray Beckerman. I wondered at the time why he hadn't submitted it himself.

But at any rate, for the corporate media spin on this, here are a few links:
Billion Dollar Charlie vs. the RIAA
Legal Jujitsu in a File-Sharing Copyright Case
Lawsuits Brought by Music Industry Are Unconstitutional, Lawyer Says
Law professor fires back at song-swapping lawsuits (AP)
Law Professor Takes on RIAA
Prof: Penalty unfair, will help with $1M download lawsuit
RIAA defendant enlists Harvard Law prof, students
Harvard Professor: File-Sharing Lawsuits Unconstitutional

Here's a nice little story on the scam-baiters.

The old saying "the more you know, the less that you know that you know" doesn't apply to everyone, like this guy:

http://blogs.kansascity.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/08/03/boyscout.jpg

Sure, David Hahn was delving into radioactivity, but same principals apply to goofballs playing with chemistry.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,292111,00.html

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

Unfortunately, it's idiots like this guy that causes all sorts of overly protective legislation that keeps us from having real chemistry sets.