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What if they're both drunk and high? The results can be very bad.

Julie Larson-Green will be promoted to lead all Windows software and hardware engineering. Tami Reller retains her roles as chief financial officer and chief marketing officer and will assume responsibility for the business of Windows.

Isn't the more important story here the rise of two women to senior positions in management and engineering at Microsoft?

The software and semiconductor sectors have the lowest percentages of women among the five highest-paid executives in a company, with 4.4 percent and 2.7 percent

Where Are the Women Executives in Silicon Valley?

Julie Larson-Green is no slouch when it comes to logging the years and time at Microsoft. She joined the company 19 years ago as a program manager for Visual C++ and has worked her way up through the ranks.

Larson-Green worked hand-in-hand with Sinofsky on Microsoft Office. Before that she worked on Microsoft SharePoint and Internet Explorer. She actually led one of the most dramatic redesigns at the company when she worked on the so-called ribbon interface in Office.

The Woman Behind Windows

''I don't even know how to explain how amazing and exciting that is to every woman who works in tech right now and probably in business across the board,'' said Michele Weisblatt, executive vice president for Women in Technology International.

''It"s not just about (the company) putting them over a division, it's about them leading the flagship product --- the money-making, revenue piece for Microsoft. It's just phenomenal.''

Women hold just a quarter of computing and mathematical jobs in the U.S., according to a 2008 report on women in technology from Catalyst, a nonprofit research organization.

''Microsoft's move is important because of its visibility as a technology and corporate giant, so girls in school who see women like Larson-Green and Reller move into such high-profile roles will carry that with them for a lifetime,''said Jenny Slade, a spokeswoman for the National Center for Women & Information Technology.

Women rising in the ranks at tech companies

Additionally, the Administration and Democrats allowed several working groups to work behind closed doors for *months* to try to come up with plans. And in the end, the Republicans on those groups could not deliver a single vote, no matter what the proposal was.

Not true. Olympia Snowe voted yea on the initial committee: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/HealthCare/senate-finance-committee-approves-health-care-bill/story?id=8817603
She also seemed genuinely interested in working in a bipartisan fashion to reform healthcare (to the chagrin of Republican leadership). But after jam packing it with 1000 pages of nonpartisan goodies, they couldn't even hold her support: http://www.politico.com/blogs/politicolive/1209/Sen_Olympia_Snowe_to_POTUS_Give_us_more_time_on_Health_Care.html

they stubbornly refused to accept any Republican input unless it was in line with their ideology

This simply untrue.

Then why does it look that way? Snowe alienated her base from the start -- she had no particular love for political grandstanding or walking the political line. Yet Obama (and the Dems) refused to work even with her. They were more focused on cramming as much stuff into the bill as possible and getting it passed as quickly as possible to score political points (funnily enough, the exact same way the stimulus bill went down: http://money.cnn.com/2009/02/13/news/economy/house_final_stimulus/index.htm).

The truth is that they wasted an entire Congress that they could have been improving the bill,

I totally agree an entire Congress was wasted, but that Congress was wasted on some asinine belief by Democrats that they had some kind of "mandate" from the people to ignore Republican input at all costs. Hell, even Obama himself multiple times said "they tried it their way, and their way didn't work"/"we're driving the car now, they can sit in the back and come along for the ride". These are not the kind of remarks from a person looking for bipartisan solutions...

Let's just be clear for a minute. The tax hike is happening on January 1st, unless new legislation is passed. So your characterization is wrong. What Pres. Obama wants is to pass new legislation keeping the existing tax code for those up to 250k, and then for those over, letting the rates revert to Clinton-era levels

By definition, " letting the rates revert to Clinton-era levels" is a tax hike. Only dogmatic stubborness would keep you from agreeing with that. Or is a tax hike really a "tax refund adjustment"? Please don't try to turn this into a terminology spat. When all the dust is settled (all old legislation expired, all new legislation passed), are their taxes going up? Ifso, it's a hike.

In the last 7 days, the leadership has for the first time started to float ballons that "revenue is on the table" - meaning more revenue via changes to the tax code.

This was pitched in earlier negotiations as well, in the first "grand bargain" in fact: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/01/magazine/obama-vs-boehner-who-killed-the-debt-deal.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
. "Or, to put it another way, Boehner was proposing to increase the governmentâ(TM)s haul by the same amount you would get if you reversed Bushâ(TM)s tax cuts for the most affluent Americans, but he was proposing to do it by lowering rates and elim

Ironic that this was announced earlier today:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/retailer-circuit-citys-website-17726152

...The TSA?
http://us.gizmodo.com/5947330/yep-the-tsa-is-definitely-stealing-ipads
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/convicted-tsa-officer-reveals-secrets-thefts-airports/story?id=17339513#.UKXz-hLJCPc
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505124_162-57523230/beware-your-gadgets-at-risk-of-theft-from-tsa/
http://www.businessinsider.com/tsa-agents-steal-from-passengers-2012-10
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/10/06/tsa-agent-accused-of-stealing-100-from-passengers-wallet/
Yeah, I know some of you are wondering WTF all the links, and "does he have a grudge" and so on. Well, suffice it to say my encounter with the scoundrels was double plus ungood.

Except for this.

The Money Shot:

"In the past 100 years — in all of human history -- we have consumed 1 trillion barrels of oil. There are several times that much here,"

No contract is involved (just terms of use), but Facebook has indeed made the promise that its service "is free and always will be."

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2011/09/facebook-will-always-be-free-company-says/

I think this is more than enough to convince people to stay away from bath salts.

And the link between the murder, and bath-salts is.... The hysteria in the U.S. over recreational drug use is amazing. For example, all the news stories about Johnny Lewis mentioned police speculation that he was on the drug "smiles" when he went berserk, despite there being no evidence whatseover of this. e.g. http://abcnews.go.com/US/actor-johnny-lewis-suspected-taking-drug-smiles-killings/story?id=17346564 Time and time again, these speculative drug links make a big splash in the media, and then by the time they prove false, no one cares. I would have thought Slashdot was a bit more into looking at the evidence before making wild speculation, but apparently not.

Coming from an educated man such as you, I'm intrigued. I would love to review any link, reference, or citation you care to provide since I'm sure you must have some facts to back that up.

By now it must be well over a thousand terrorists killed by drones in Pakistan by the US, few if any high value terrorists captured recently, and a decade ago three terrorists waterboarded.

This is no surprise, but a natural outcome.
Detainee Madness
Washington Post Confirms We Are No Longer Capturing & Interrogating High-Value Terrorists

Ambassador Stevens was referring to Benghazi, not "a different embassy" as you claim.

Again, Benghazi, not "a different embassy", as you claim.

Actually, you partisan hack, there is no mention of Benghazi in CBS's time line. Just as an FYI, the embassy is in Tripoli, and the consulate is in Benghazi. Since you clearly don't understand the difference, I question how you can have any opinion at all on how diplomacy was conducted in Libya, it's purpose, and the logic behind the security assessments. There were indeed very specific requests for increased security detail, but your CBS article isn't the source for that. A much better source is here: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/10/email-shows-state-department-rejecting-request-of-security-team-at-us-embassy-in-libya/ It's clear that the security was focused on the embassy, not the consulate. The consulate had always been exposed, and was purposefully set up in such a way by Stevens himself. He understood that you can't conduct diplomacy and outreach programs if you're always hiding behind concrete barriers and massive guns.

There were security issues, but those were standard failures where small problems snowballed into 4 dead people. By the way, those four dead people in Libya are less than die every day in Afghanistan across all NATO forces. So congratulations on latching on to a small issue that crept up in an unstable country. If that's the worst Obama did, he did one hell of a job. It's too bad you're so blinded by partisan hatred that you are incapable of looking at the issue rationally.

Oh, please. The mainstream media never got on Bush's ass 24x7 about *anything*.

Should we welcome you to America, or out of a coma?

3,000 Deaths in Iraq, Countless Tears at Home
At Grim Milestone, White House Says Focus Is on Success in Iraq
A Grim Milestone: 500 Amputees
Iraq war casualties: We're nearing another grim milestone; vigils planned nationwide

Three weeks before the 2006 midterm elections gave Democrats control of Congress, a shocking study reported on the number of Iraqis who had died in the ongoing war. It bolstered criticism of President Bush and heightened the waves of dread -- here and around the world -- about the U.S. occupation of Iraq. --- Data Bomb

(I'm pretty sure FDR didn't have to fight this kind of press as well as the Axis powers.)

Waterboarding / "torture" was another popular one for a while, of course it was only three people, it stopped 10 years ago, it was legal at the time, the US does it to its own pilots and special forces, and so on. There often seems to be far more vitriol directed against the United States for waterboarding three terrorists than against Al Qaida and its affiliates for killing tens or hundreds of thousands of people.

Exclusive: Only Three Have Been Waterboarded by CIA

A Grim Milestone Ignored - Thursday, November 15, 2007

The establishment media is seemingly obsessed with “grim milestones” in the War on Terror, as the Associated Press reminds us this past weekend. But in the next week those same establishment media outlets will probably stand mute when yet another “grim milestone” is reached – the10,000th attack by Islamic terrorists and militants since 9/11, which is responsible for approximately 60,000 dead and 90,000 injured

Lesson: Facts do not cease to be facts just because they were reported on Fox News.

Different members of the Obama Administration have said different things about Benghazi at different times.

American forces in a position to help were evidently told repeatedly to stand down.

Charles Woods, the father of the slain Tyrone Woods, thinks Obama is lying. And the mother of slain State Department employee Sean Patrick Smith just came out and said "I believe that Obama murdered my son” though his negligence. Compare the amount of press given to them compared to Cindy Sheehan.

Now two chain-of-command figures central to the Benghazi controversy, CIA Director David Petraeus and General Carter Ham, commander of AFRICOM, have resigned, while a third, Rear Adm. Charles M. Gaouette, has been reassigned.

None of this necessarily means that Obama issued the stand-down order, or validates the speculation in some quarters that Ambassador Stevens may have been involved in arms transfers. But how blind do you have to be to think that the fact that no additional forces were sent to protect Americans during a seven hour battle with jihadests is unworthy of being investigated?

There is even precedent.

It seems Americans will vote pretty much anyone into office. Really, I've heard worse ideas. Zombie Feynman 2016, anyone?

The cyclist in question did not "break the laws of the road" and was not "killed in traffic".

From ABC News:

The speed limit on the road is 30 mph, and Flint was clocked going over 40 mph down the hill. He had to brake suddenly in front of a car, causing his bike to flip over, fatally injuring him.

The the Army has 419,155 bayonets in its inventory. From the same source, the Marines have 195,334 bayonets and plan to buy another 175,061 this year.

I have done quite a bit of research actually.

Right...

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jun/20/obama-asserts-executive-privilege-over-ff-docs/?page=all
http://abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/News/page/univision-news-investigation-operation-fast-furious-weapons-revealed-17352963
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/11/the-benghazi-drip-drip-drip/
http://www.examiner.com/article/retired-officer-obama-watched-benghazi-attack-happen-sources-say
http://dailycaller.com/2012/08/20/more-than-500-economists-5-nobel-laureates-back-romneys-economic-strategy/
http://money.cnn.com/2012/06/25/news/economy/obama-congress-grades/index.htm
http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/tygrrrr-express/2012/oct/2/real-obama-economic-policy-record/
http://www.ijreview.com/2012/07/10891-top-4-most-wasteful-michelle-obama-vacations/ http://obamagolfcounter.com/

Note the many right-wing sources like CNN and ABC News.

I saved the apology tour for last, as I found several quotes you'll no doubt enjoy:

- At a Summit of the Americas, Obama regretted how “at times we sought to dictate our terms.” In an op-ed about policy toward the America’s, Obama declared: “Too often, the United States has not pursued and sustained engagement with our neighbors.”

- Speaking to the Turkish parliament, Obama rationalized: “The United States is still working through some of our own darker periods in our history.”

- Addressing CIA employees about an administration report which castigated the use of enhanced interrogation techniques against terrorist suspects, the President urged: “Don’t be discouraged that we have to acknowledge potentially we’ve made some mistakes.”

- In a speech, Obama denounced the techniques used in the war on terror: “Instead of strategically applying our power and our principles, too often we set those principles aside as luxuries that we could no longer afford. And during this season of fear, too many of us – Democrats and Republicans, politicians, journalists, and citizens – fell silent.”

- In that same address at the National Archives, he went into full apology mode over Guantanamo: “There is also no question that Guantanamo set back the moral authority that is America’s strongest currency in the world. Instead of building a durable framework for the struggle against Al Qaeda that drew upon our deeply held values and traditions, our government was defending positions that undermined the rule of law.”

0's rhetoric and actions have weakened America considerably, which is reflected in the actions of the PRC and Russia in particular.

I have done quite a bit of research actually.

Right...

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jun/20/obama-asserts-executive-privilege-over-ff-docs/?page=all
http://abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/News/page/univision-news-investigation-operation-fast-furious-weapons-revealed-17352963
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/11/the-benghazi-drip-drip-drip/
http://www.examiner.com/article/retired-officer-obama-watched-benghazi-attack-happen-sources-say
http://dailycaller.com/2012/08/20/more-than-500-economists-5-nobel-laureates-back-romneys-economic-strategy/
http://money.cnn.com/2012/06/25/news/economy/obama-congress-grades/index.htm
http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/tygrrrr-express/2012/oct/2/real-obama-economic-policy-record/
http://www.ijreview.com/2012/07/10891-top-4-most-wasteful-michelle-obama-vacations/ http://obamagolfcounter.com/

Note the many right-wing sources like CNN and ABC News.

I saved the apology tour for last, as I found several quotes you'll no doubt enjoy:

- At a Summit of the Americas, Obama regretted how “at times we sought to dictate our terms.” In an op-ed about policy toward the America’s, Obama declared: “Too often, the United States has not pursued and sustained engagement with our neighbors.”

- Speaking to the Turkish parliament, Obama rationalized: “The United States is still working through some of our own darker periods in our history.”

- Addressing CIA employees about an administration report which castigated the use of enhanced interrogation techniques against terrorist suspects, the President urged: “Don’t be discouraged that we have to acknowledge potentially we’ve made some mistakes.”

- In a speech, Obama denounced the techniques used in the war on terror: “Instead of strategically applying our power and our principles, too often we set those principles aside as luxuries that we could no longer afford. And during this season of fear, too many of us – Democrats and Republicans, politicians, journalists, and citizens – fell silent.”

- In that same address at the National Archives, he went into full apology mode over Guantanamo: “There is also no question that Guantanamo set back the moral authority that is America’s strongest currency in the world. Instead of building a durable framework for the struggle against Al Qaeda that drew upon our deeply held values and traditions, our government was defending positions that undermined the rule of law.”

0's rhetoric and actions have weakened America considerably, which is reflected in the actions of the PRC and Russia in particular.

I guess they can announce they are going to layoff 123,000 people now that the election is over.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/10/at-white-house-request-lockheed-martin-drops-plan-to-issue-layoff-notices/

Slightly off-topic, but i highly recommend seeing Broke from ESPN's very good 30 for 30 series. All about how sudden riches for people who are not ready for them can cause real problems.

There's no expectation of privacy in public, therefore it's exempt.

Bullshit, that doesn't mean I can just stick my camera up your girlfriend's skirt because she's in public. There are limits.

Actually, you apparently can do that in Seattle.

(From http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=125746&page=1#.UJQu7IXahaw)
"The [upskirt imaging] case went all the way up the Washington State Supreme Court in Olympia, where to the surprise of prosecutors, lawmakers and Jang herself, the taping of her and other targets was ruled "disgusting and reprehensible," but not against the law. "

This story is a pretty good one because it shows the difference between people's desired privacy and actually their legal protections in public. A lot of people are getting upset at the actions of the camera man, and that is exactly his point. Is he a persistent, creepy dick? Yes. Can you legally stop what he is doing? Probably not. Does this bother most people? Apparently.

> He is encouraging others to reject religion and other supernatural beliefs that are made without good reasons

Oh please. Dawkins continues to shit on other people's belief. When he is able to respect a person _irrespective_ of their beliefs then maybe the rest of the world will pay attention to him.

First, right now he comes across as a pompous ass unable to acknowledge that *everyone* has faith. i.e. If you didn't faith in your beliefs you wouldn't have them!

Second, as a Mystic the problem is BOTH Atheism and Theism are based on ignorance. They have beliefs (or lack of them) yet they BOTH LACK KNOWLEDGE. While Dawkins is able to see the wisdom of Atheism and the ignorance of Theism, he is _also_ unable to see the weaknesses of Atheism and unable to see the wisdom of Theism. This is not his fault. All the major religions for the most part have crappy teachers not understanding the difference between religion and spirituality. i.e. "How terrible it will be for you experts in religious law! For you hide the key to knowledge from the people. You don't enter the Kingdom yourselves, and you prevent others from entering " Unless a priest, rabbi, minister, etc, is able to explain what the Key of Knowledge is, sadly, they don't know jack about God, or the purpose of the Universe: HINT: It is ALL about relationships.

Third, Dawkins is ignorant of God because he keeps using another man's definition of "god" instead of his own. He is an arm chair theologian. You wouldn't go ask a non musician how to be the a great drummer; you would go find someone who IS a drummer to SHOW you.

Fourth, He is unable to reconcile the *paradox* "There is only one path; there are infinite paths." He doesn't understand that BOTH Atheism AND Theism are valid paths. They are NOT mutually exclusive.

Fifth, Dawkins continues to ignore the evidence that Death is merely a shift in consciousness as the NDE proves.

* http://abcnews.go.com/Health/neuroscientist-sees-proof-heaven-week-long-coma/story?id=17555207#.UI0gU41lQf4
* http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html

Unless he is able to see BOTH the WISDOM _and_ IGNORANCE of Atheism he is deluded.

Shoot. I had an asterisk there that I was going to expand on.

Many many years ago SONY had started outfitting cameras with NightShot mode. This was basically just removing the IR filter at the press of a button. While this was great for those playing with near-IR photography, it also had the side-effect of very badly 'looking through clothing'. This had some backlash, SONY modified it a bit, and this mode in general never found wide adoption across manufacturers, and is even absent from many current SONY models - requiring those interested in IR photography to manually remove the filter.

It's entirely possible, then, that FLIR would not make it onto cameras/cellphones because there would actually be a public backlash against it.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=126782&page=1#.UJGoRmffCKE

Forget swallowing or stuffing the c4. The new fear is surgical insertion of explosives. Body bombs. Check out these links:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/05/13/al-qaeda-s-body-bombs-al-asiri-s-next-threat.html

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/officials-fear-terrorists-body-bombs-us-bound-planes/story?id=16245827

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18161870

At 100 Williams Street, http://www.nyistatus.com/
My server and connections have been up non stop.

I know it's cynical of me, but I find it a bit sad that we can better plan data centers then medical factilities.

I know all the colocation facilities I've been to in Manhattan have generators above the 6th floor ( sometimes in addition to generators in the basement). A few had them on the roof with some special setup that allows fuel to be flown by helicopter for worse case scenarios.

do you suck at google?

Here's an especially egregious one:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/arizona-swat-team-cleared-marines-killing/story?id=13842029

How about this one: "first person shooter" - here you can see the events transpire through the eyes of the executioners..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSfOBPlY2n0

Here's a nice one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wb07-EWfGCg

Oh look! These valliant, competent heros _break into the mayors house_ and kill _his_ dog:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6P2WATPmjU

Is this what the founders had in mind? I don't think so...

Dude! I think you're on to something but let's take it a step further. We don't really want electricity in the car. We want the car to go places. So take the spinning motion, and stretch it out along a cable. Then, have the car grab the cable. Then you've got the motion transferred directly to the car via cable, without any electricity involved. There's just a cable and a car. We could call it a "cable-car". I bet it would really safe since there's no electro-magnetic waves at all anywhere. Just motion, trasmitted by cable as our earth-mother goddess intended.

I love my HTC One. For many years now, when my cell phone battery goes bad I cannot find one from qualified sources, and the made-in-China crap available on eBay doesn't last a month. Besides, the phone tech is soo outdated I want a new phone, and my provider's plan "forces" the upgrade to be almost free. As in beer, anyway. The One has more memory than I'll ever use, and I have it automatically uploading to Google and DropBox so if I have to delete photos I already have them saved in multiple places.

One reason I chose HTC was their support for professional cycling. So I was a bit pissed when they dropped the team. Now that the sport is eating its tail (I refer to the Lance Armstrong debacle) it will be even harder to get major corporations to sponsor teams. Most recent example: Rabobank, not only a team sponsor but a major sponsor of the Tour of California. Their guy won this year, and now the team is gone. Sad.

Dawkins may or may not be a bigot, however I can't agree that he is based on labelling religious believers delusional. For one, it is a conclusion that is based upon evidence, not obstinately held. Secondly I don't see how that comment shows Dawkins treating the religious with hatred and intolerance.

Delusion is commonly used to describe belief in anything without evidence. The anecdote you linked to perfectly fits this definition. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

Without indication one way or another, the only logical conclusion is agnosticism. However, many of us have had such an indication.

Logical conclusion? That argument is actually a logical falacy. See Russell's teapot. Your ancedote shows that more investigation is required as currently the workings of the brain are not fully understood. Using a god of the gaps argument is not very convincing or a reasonable position to take.

Your dictionary is broken:

So is your understanding of what your own dictionary says. "Bigotry 'a person obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices'".

Sounds like Dawkins to me. And you, to, if I may say so.

Your belief that there can be no god despite any evidence whatever takes a lot of faith. Without indication one way or another, the only logical conclusion is agnosticism. However, many of us have had such an indication.

When people have tried to walk away from the airport upon discovering, they were selected for the extra microwaving (or groping), they were told, they can no longer leave and must go through the screening. The reason was given, that doing otherwise would allow terrorists to attempt to travel, but back away if they find themselves selected for more rigorous checks.

Well, if the level of checking is printed right there on one's boarding pass, the terrorists don't have to reveal themselves. When they find out -- ahead of time -- that they were picked for extra attention, they can simply leave all the bombs at home, fly away and back, and then try again until they draw a "lucky" boarding pass.

I'm gonna have to go with Scott Adams on this one. The best summary of Romney's plan is: "You know I'm a brilliant and experienced turnaround guy. I know how to do this sort of thing. And if I give details now it just paints a target on my back. So chill."

http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/interesting_day/

Also, I am bemused that the man who ran on a platform "hope and change", the man who straight-up said "I serve as a blank screen" upon which people could project their hopes, the man who hasn't proposed to do anything different in the next four years yet he says things will somehow stop getting worse and get better... that this man is trying to nail Romney as not being specific enough about his plans?

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/12/obama_scores_as_an_exotic_who.html

On the other hand, the official Obama budget plan is that the USA borrows over a trillion dollars every year for the foreseeable future, but interest rates won't go up much or otherwise be a problem. The official numbers from the OMB are that Medicare just runs out of money in 2024, yet the Obama administration has done nothing to change this; instead, Obama jacked over $700 billion out of Medicare. His fans say that this plundering only "makes Medicare stronger" and that Medicare having less money to pay out doesn't hurt Medicare recipients in any way... that is pure fantasy.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/05/medicare-and-social-security-will-run-out-sooner-than-thought/

Well, it doesn't really matter. Romney is about to win; look at the polls. We will find out whether the Romney recovery plan is worth a +5 Funny moderation or not.

Mitt Romney wants to create world peace? By arming the Syrian rebels? Because that's never bit us in the ass. I'm sick and tired of this mentality that the United States needs to police the entire world and Romney keeps saying crap like "it's an honor that we didn't ask for but we have." What the hell?

Oh! But yeah, go ahead and arm Syrian rebels! Iran totally won't view that as an aggressive act! No, they'll sit by and watch that happen! And just say "Gee, I guess the people of Syria have spoken!" Try meeting with them then and using diplomacy to reduce their nuclear efforts!

Thanks for the correction.

Its a bit odd I'm finding data all over the place. Like the BLS lists average mine worker salary (which would include things like office staff) at $18 / hr. News reports average salaries are much higher. The average starting salary for a coal mine worker is $60,000, for example.

Payscale lists it at 77,277 with associates
54,500 with HS.

So pfff I don't know which one of is right, data is totally contradictory.

As for an honest 8 hr workday with a low cost of living, sounds nice.

And this will certainly happen. The police already do things like open fire on someone holding a wallet because they perceived it as a weapon. http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/north_bay&id=8678964

And, for what it's worth, 80 years of data supports the Keynesian economic model - governments should save money (e.g. under Clinton) so that they can spend more money (e.g. under Bush and Obama) when the economy turns down, evening out the economic booms and busts.

Governments "should" save money, but don't. Even under Clinton, for a short time we had a budget surplus but the magnitude of the surplus is much smaller than deficits we have run before and after. There's simply no political will to pay off the debt when times are good. Instead we make projections 10 years out and say "Oh wow we can spend much more money than we thought!" Look at this old article: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=88866&page=1#.UH71_MV2xCc

President Clinton today projected that the United States will have a $1.9 trillion budget surplus over the next decade. He said the increase in the expected surplus means the government will be debt-free by 2010.

Funny huh?

It could have been worse - the same kind of "austerity" thinking took stronger hold in Europe, where it did more damage.

The good thing about austerity is it doesn't depend on projections. If you save money by cutting spending, that money is saved right now, not 10 years from now. Then later when the economy is doing well you can bring back the programs that were cut. In the end, the process is more fair and makes more sense to people. There's not much that upsets people more than when times are tough and then the governments picks certain groups to lavish with spending while everyone else suffers.

Your generalization is far more false.

There are no such things as degrees of falsehood - a statement is either true, or it isn't. As I doubt anyone is ignorant enough to truly lack the ability to grasp such a base concept, I have to assume you're being hyperbolic for hyperbole's sake. Please don't muddy the waters unnecessarily.

Most Christians don't ever protest a dang thing.

"Christians" protest everything from other people having abortions to honoring soldiers who die in combat. Your statement is complete and utter bullshit, smacking strongly of bearing false witness, and I have a powerful suspicion you already know that.

I happened to catch the original showing. An entrepreneur was marketing an app he had acquired the rights to that sequestered calls from certain numbers. The original app was authored by "a policeman" who used it to get calls from informers. The new owner -- Neal Desai -- tried to get buy-in from the Sharks so he could market it as a "cheater's app". One of the Sharks said she was more interested in it as a privacy app. Neal ended up getting buy-in from two other investors for $200,000! Now there's a flip!

Malala Yousufzai has been flown by medical airbus to Great Britain for further treatment. Thank God for the good people in this life. http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?id=17479249

It apparently happened off the coast of Florida.

The Lancet journal study was censured:

In a highly unusual rebuke, the American Association for Public Opinion Research today said the author of a widely debated survey on "excess deaths" in Iraq had violated its code of professional ethics by refusing to disclose details of his work. The author's institution later disclosed to ABC News that it, too, is investigating the study.

http://abcnews.go.com/PollingUnit/story?id=6799754&page=1#.UHgfJJWZx3g

I do consider those (although the only one I can think of that he's admitted to is gay rights). There are many areas where he hasn't practiced what he's preached but hasn't come out and said that his opinion or position has changed (transparency, war in Afghanistan, IP issues) - and I consider failure to meet a goal or hypocrisy to be worse than a (slowly or consistently) changing position.

Since you're being lazy or obtuse or looking through glasses that are rose-tinted to the point of opacity, here, have a spoon-feeding:

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/mitt-romneys-top-contradicting-comments/story?id=14805513

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1012/82058.html

These are the most blatant, undeniable, concrete examples, but there are plenty more where he bends sweet lady truth into a pretzel that could be considered flip-flopping, such as:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/09/mitt-romney-lies-newt-gingrich-super-pac-ads_n_1195119.html

I think we need some of that new quantum state measurement tech to figure out his position on abortion:

http://americablog.com/2012/10/romney-flip-flops-twice-on-abortion-in-one-day.html

DON'T LOOK:

https://www.google.com/search?q=romney+flip-flop

Currently, the only thing keeping Mr Assange from torture and death is the public spotlight.

Torture and death from whom? It wouldn't be the US. Not that they were legally torture under US law as determined at the US Department of Justice, but the US only waterboarded three terrorists, the most recent in about 2003, (although it continues to routinely waterboard its own pilots and special forces members for training - thousands of them), and President Obama stopped enhanced interrogations, so no "torture" by the US. The US hasn't put a spy to death in the 60 years since the Rosenbergs, and that was over nuclear weapons secrets. (Even the disastrous John Walker only got life in prison, and he enabled the Soviets to break American codes, enabling them to know where American submarines were, among many other things.) Assange has been prolific, to be sure, but nowhere as dangerous as handing the power of nuclear weapons and the locations of American submarines to a sworn enemy. So, he faces no torture, and very unlikely death.

The biggest risk Assange faces with any real certainty is ennui in a Swedish prison, although he might yet end up facing charges in the UK after that for jumping bail and fleeing the law. If the rumored secret grand jury investigation in the US pans out, he might have more serious charges filed against him, but then it is a strictly legal matter, and they have to figure out how to get him legally, which may not be easy or possible. Even then, they still have to prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt, and the worst he is likely to face is more prison time.

He's right. At one time, I "had a friend" that would have put a bullet through Assanges' head on "unofficial" orders.

Is that a fact? And your friend actually told you this*? Leaves me wondering what kind of a friend you have there, sharing what would obviously be highly classified information. . .if true. . . for you to spread around? Even more so, does he have friends . . . . or maybe a team (?) of his own preparing for action against Assange . . . . maybe with FBI support?

I would think that when it comes to Assange, even if the US government was inclined to direct action, they would be open to following Napoleons advice: Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. Assange has made plenty of them, and they seem to be continuing. Instead of going to Sweden to clear his name, he has managed to commit actual offenses in the UK (jumping bail and fleeing the law) and confine himself in a small apartment for an indefinite term. As things are going he could easily be there for years, ultimately be captured and sent to Sweden, be cleared in Sweden, and then returned to the UK to face charges for jumping bail and fleeing the law.

Besides, since the US only waterboarded three people, the most recent in about 2003 in pretty much the immediate aftermath of 9/11 to try to get some insight into Al Qaeda's next attack after having just suffered 3,000 dead, and there has been endless carping about it ever since, what do you think would happen if the US employed your "friend", or someone that is actually dangerous, to kill a "journalist" like Assange, and word got out -as it inevitably would? Somehow I just don't see that happening since Assange hasn't actually participated in direct warfare against the US, unlike Al Awlaki.

In any event, you can rest assured that Julian Assange takes strong evasive measures whenever possible - no catching him with his pants . . . down.

* So you fancy your friend as the ruthless sort then?

http://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/2012/03/30/epa-to-range-resources-drill-away/

http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/state&id=5980352

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-epa20dec20,0,1603760.story?coll=la-home-center

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24276709/

http://articles.philly.com/2008-12-07/news/24992895_1_climate-change-climate-change-deputy-administrator-jason-burnett

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55268-2005Mar21.html

The EPA is run by the administration of the moment. Reagan had James Watt as Secretary of the Interior, for chrissakes. Right now, the EPA likes solar because Obama likes solar. Under Bush, the EPA loved nothing more than oil companies, as demonstrated by the reality based links given above.

Now go on back to your Tea Party, meme-bot, and let the grown-ups talk.

You can still see the characteristic and beautiful Cherenkov radiation at the research reactor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I've seen it a number of times.

Up until recently, it contained 1400 pounds of highly-enriched (weapons grade) U-235 in 58-pound bundles. It is in a building across from a 7-level parking ramp and an 80,000-person football stadium.

There are a number of such "Research and Test Reactors" around the US.

A 2005 ABC News report found:

- "No guards. No metal detectors. Bags were brought into the reactor room. Doors to the building are open during the day, and no IDs are required for entry."

- "The building was undergoing major renovation, and construction workers, large trucks and building materials surrounded the rear exterior."

- "The university Web site includes a 'virtual tour' and detailed photos, descriptions and diagrams of the reactor, the fuel elements and the control room. The reactor manager informed the Fellows that tours had to be scheduled three weeks in advance and that a locked door with a window view of the reactor was the closest they could get. But a friendly professor told the Fellows about a basement entry to the reactor room, where a reactor operator opened the door and let the Fellows photograph the reactor from the doorway. Two other operators allowed the Fellows to come inside carrying their tote bags, and briefly take photographs about 15 feet from the reactor's base. No campus security ever approached the Fellows."

An 2004 New York Times report found:

- "[UWNR's] fuel is weapons-grade uranium. If it were stolen, experts say, it could give terrorists or criminals a major head start on an atomic bomb."

- "[...] out of concern that the uranium might be turned into bomb fuel, the Department of Energy has spent millions of dollars to develop lower-grade fuel and convert scores of reactors to run on it. [...] But the six campus reactors in this country are not among them."

- "Campus reactors have far less security than places where the government keeps bomb-grade uranium, and they may have foreign students of unknown political sympathies."

- "[...] the fuel now in the campus reactors is dangerously radioactive, making it hard to handle. [...] however, that highly enriched uranium was an easier fuel from which to build a bomb than is plutonium."

- "The reactor operators are paid $10.50 an hour. They recently got a raise to that level [...] because someone discovered that campus file clerks were paid more than the reactor operators.

- "[...] the current fuel load will last about 108 years at current rates of use."

"The truck is the real threat. You want to make sure the truck stays away 250 feet minimum." - Ronald Timm, Former Department of Energy security analyst

Here, the primary entrance to a major parking ramp is about 50 feet away.

Also, it's not like it's really a mystery what he saw at BNL. There have only been so many reactors there in the last 60 years. It's odd, beautiful, and I suppose comparatively rare for a person to see, but it's not a big deal.

"Whatever he is now"? He's the "Mad prophet" Howard Beale from the movie Network. Which was a pretty clever idea to steal, ratings wise. He has unashamedly admitted this relationship in the past.

Hey, at least Beck pushes gold instead of bitcoin.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/goldline-execs-charged-fraud/story?id=14857253

The complaint alleges that Goldline "runs a bait and switch operation in which customers, seeking to invest in gold bullion, are switched to highly overpriced coins by using false and misleading claims," according to a statement released by the consumer affairs division of the Santa Monica City Attorney's office.

The company has been charged in the court filing with misdemeanors that include theft by false pretenses, false advertising, and conspiracy, the City Attorney's office said. In addition to the charges against the company, the complaint accuses former CEO Mark Albarian, executives Robert Fazio and Luis Beeli, and salespeople Charles Boratgis and Stephanie Howard of defrauding customers. Current CEO Scott Carter is accused of making false or misleading statements. Each of the charged offenses carries a maximum penalty of one year in jail and maximum fines of between $1,000 and $10,000 per offense.

And the conclusion
http://blogs.wsj.com/totalreturn/2012/02/23/goldline-agrees-to-refund-4-5-million/

Gold coin and bullion dealer Goldline International agreed on Wednesday to refund up to $4.5 million to former customers, ending the criminal prosecution brought against the company last November.

Goldline was running a bait and switch.
They were advertising bullion and pushing people to buy coins at an inflated collector's price.

The Goldline press release about the settlement is a fine bit of doublespeak and PR nonsense.

These people ignored the law, destroyed the man's business, and handed the assets over to a foreign government who will never return them. How about I kick in your door in the middle of the night, steal all your assets and hand them over to the Chinese government and say it's punishment for all the slave labor that goes into producing half the goods you and your family use to survive?

As opposed to the United States where they can perform no-knock raids in the middle of the night and kill innocent little kids and former marines with zero consequences?

$100k might be 'cheap' but it also wouldn't have fixed the problem. The solution was evidently to fix the g suits not the oxygen system.

"The source of the issue, the Pentagon now says, is believed to be a faulty valve in the high-pressure vest that is worn by the pilots at extreme altitudes -- one that Air Force officials believe is constricting the pilots' ability to breathe."
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/air-force-confident-22-raptor-fighter-problem-solved/story?id=16845990#.UGYcBk3A98E