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You do know there are other eyewitnesses who claimed that was not the case? That's your probable cause right there.

Fabulous! New information! I'm for new information. Here is a link showing the eye witness I'm referring to:

In addition, an eyewitness, 13-year-old Austin Brown, told police he saw a man fitting Zimmerman's description lying on the grass moaning and crying for help just seconds before he heard the gunshot that killed Martin.

And here is another report, which seems consistent with the above, and seems to be someone different:

After hearing raised voice, the witness said he peered out of the window and saw two men grappling with each other on the ground, one on top of the other. He said there were two struggles, both of which were on the grass next to a sidewalk. “I heard the yell for help then I heard another as I would describe as an excruciating type of yell. It didn’t even sound like a help it just sounded so painful,” he said. Following the cry, he described hearing “popping” sounds, believed to be multiple gunshots. One of the men then cried out for help.

And of course Zimmerman was treated on the scene for head injuries, which is again consistent with the other reports.

As it was, the police took Zimmerman in for questioning in handcuffs, and released him. They know where he lives.

Do you have a link for me?

How about the surveillance video from the police station showing Zimmerman with no injuries after he was brought in? If his head was slammed into concrete such that he was at risk of dying, you would have been able to see it half an hour later. Here's the link you asked for. I bet you don't even view it - you've already made up your mind.

Well maybe I WANT to YELL so the people who just arent UNDERSTANDING can realize why Zimmerman is in the wrong here, and will be prosecuted and found guilty.

There is another possibility - you don't have the facts right, you don't have the law right, and you might end up being terribly disappointed.

Or the government will be overthrown, and the guy tried and convicted outside of the court system. It's down to that, basically.

So if the fate of one person in one incident among what will probably be 2,600 black men killed this year isn't to be tried and convicted according to your say so, the government should be overthrown and vigilante justice rules? Basically, in spirit, you're a bigger threat to society than either Zimmerman or Martin.... lovely.

You know that Martin was just kicked out of school for marijuana possession? What's your deal?

You do know there are other eyewitnesses who claimed that was not the case? That's your probable cause right there.

Fabulous! New information! I'm for new information. Here is a link showing the eye witness I'm referring to:

In addition, an eyewitness, 13-year-old Austin Brown, told police he saw a man fitting Zimmerman's description lying on the grass moaning and crying for help just seconds before he heard the gunshot that killed Martin.

And here is another report, which seems consistent with the above, and seems to be someone different:

After hearing raised voice, the witness said he peered out of the window and saw two men grappling with each other on the ground, one on top of the other. He said there were two struggles, both of which were on the grass next to a sidewalk. “I heard the yell for help then I heard another as I would describe as an excruciating type of yell. It didn’t even sound like a help it just sounded so painful,” he said. Following the cry, he described hearing “popping” sounds, believed to be multiple gunshots. One of the men then cried out for help.

And of course Zimmerman was treated on the scene for head injuries, which is again consistent with the other reports.

As it was, the police took Zimmerman in for questioning in handcuffs, and released him. They know where he lives.

Do you have a link for me?

There is an eye witness that contradicts your statements. Do you have a source?

Trayvon Martin Shooter Told Cops Teenager Went For His Gun

In addition, an eyewitness, 13-year-old Austin Brown, told police he saw a man fitting Zimmerman's description lying on the grass moaning and crying for help just seconds before he heard the gunshot that killed Martin.

If only the guy who shot another person without witnesses would have been actually *investigated*, instead of letting him walk entirely on his own testimony...

In short, you don't know what you are talking about, in pretty much any regard. Well done.

NOT BREAKING NEWS on Zimmerman being bloodi

Trayvon Martin Shooter Told Cops Teenager Went For His Gun (Also, watch video)

In addition, an eyewitness, 13-year-old Austin Brown, told police he saw a man fitting Zimmerman's description lying on the grass moaning and crying for help just seconds before he heard the gunshot that killed Martin.

Would coudl possibly go wrong with enough people having your level in insight?

KillZimmerman’ Twitter advocates violence against Martin’s killer
How Many Crimes Did the New Black Panthers Commit in Florida?

When New Black Panther Mikhail Muhammad called for the mobilization of a 10,000-strong black male mob to capture George Zimmerman, we glimpsed into the depths of racial depravity of the organization. “An eye for an eye,” Muhammad threatened. A cash bounty for Zimmerman, “dead or alive,” provided a nasty incentive for thugs across the land.

Paper: Spike Lee tweeted incorrect George Zimmerman address, possibly putting Sanford woman in danger

Inconvenient narratives in the Martin case

Civil rights leaders condemn Sharpton's call for escalated civil disobedience

Sad

It's a wonder that civilization withstands your level of insight as it appears to be all too common.

Zimmerman's claim of being badly beaten up before he shot the kid doesn't hold up either: there's some footage taken at the police station the night of his arrest, and he looks totally unharmed. No cuts to the back of the head, no broken nose, nothing. Guy's story has more holes than... eh, I'm on my eighteenth hour without sleep due to a project and can't come up with an apt metaphor, but something with a lot of holes.

I also mail letters with the US Postal Service, which is a nice example of how efficient a government organization can be without partisan politics interfering.

The USPS now faces a budget crisis because Congress dropped 75 years of employee benefit funding on the organization, due in a span of only 10 years

You see how these contradict and back up my point, don't you? Do you think any government program is going to be different?

Even after proposing to close 3,700 offices over the next year, the U.S. postal service has a $9.2 billion deficit and is near a default.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/business/2011/09/do-we-need-the-postal-service/

But you blame it on the same government that you want to run insurance? You do see the hypocrisy in that, don't you? Are you trying to support my point that government run services are no better (in fact, in this case worse) than private sector? Politics can just as easily kill a business as a CEO. And don't even get started saying that Healthcare is failing in the private sector. It's arguably one of the most regulated (ie: ah, those politics again) sectors of industry today.

You can go back 10 years and find out why it's failing... hard. And of course, they don't consider themselves accountable for any of that. That's definitely what I want my life entrusted to... and since we are on the USPS: Why is it that UPS and FedEx are doing so well? Is it because the USPS cannot deliver packages? No. They deliver packages. What must it be then? Efficiency? Customer Service? Reliability? What is the USPS failing on so hard that it can't compete with these private companies? I think the CATO report sums it nicely: "the Postal Service decided to improve mail service by delaying letter delivery" They delay. So let's push our healthcare under that same "efficient" system. Let's just say, "Hold on sir, we'll get you that heart... when we are damn well ready."

Yeah, let's keep stamp prices artificially low. It makes them look good. (whopping 55%...)

So what about that USPS? Do we still need it?

“Heck, the only thing I need a physical mailing address for these days is to get physical packages from Amazon, UPS and FedEx do just fine and do it with lower labor costs (53% of its expenses for UPS, 32% for FedEx compared with 80% with the USPS)—the private delivery services just run more efficiently as a business,” Chan writes.

From 2008 to 2010, sales revenue in the mailing industry, which includes private mailers and printing companies, grew by 10 percent to $1.1 trillion and increased jobs by 16 percent.

Yes, spam ... spam is saving the USPS. Not efficiency.

So... why is it that:

Postal services in the Netherlands and Germany have been privatized...

And about those markups. Since you cherry picked a single (highly regulated) business that's failed you, let me point out a few government programs that have/are failing as well:
Cash for Clunkers
Fannie Mae
Freddie Mac
TARP
Heck, there was just an article the other day about Solar Energy in America and how it's being exploited by China ...

More devastating than direct efficiency comparisons is the tendency for government to eventually bankrupt everything it manages, including itself. Amtrak, the Postal Service, Social Security, Medicare, Fannie and Freddie, FHA, FDIC, FSLIC, Student Loans, etc. are some examples.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/12/government_gone_wild.html

Not just that, cops are dumb as shit thugs to start with.

From the article you linked to:
Jordan [...] scored 33 points, the equivalent of an IQ of 125. But New London police interviewed only candidates who scored 20 to 27 [...]
The average score nationally for police officers is 21 to 22, the equivalent of an IQ of 104, or just a little above average.

How exactly does "just a little above average" equate to "dumb as shit"?

Not just that, cops are dumb as shit thugs to start with.

They're legally allowed to refuse to hire anyone "too smart" to do the job.

Jeezuz....
Generalize much? And this is stupid shit gets modded up as "Informative"? Damn...

Not just that, cops are dumb as shit thugs to start with.

They're legally allowed to refuse to hire anyone "too smart" to do the job.

Didn't you hear? Newt Gingrich wants to start a Lunar colony. Of-course no amount of rockets will help him there, what he needs is James Cameron with lots of movie shooting gear.

http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/story/_/id/7742330/liam-stacey-jailed-racial-tweets-bolton-fabrice-muamba is where I had to go to find what he actually said. Something the article lacked.

Take it pretty seriously over there? Dead god, you UKers. Kicking a guy out of a graduate program, sending him to jail for that? Distasteful, yes, but ruing a mans life over it?

Captain Sully was also the last person off the plane http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/story?id=7793478&page=1 I'd call him more than just "lucky."

We would do well to remember that this flood of new restrictions is all in "response" to an incident in which two school bus drivers were following too closely to each other and the tractor trailer in front of the pickup truck in front of the buses, resulting in the death of the driver of the pickup truck and one of the students when the busses were unable to avoid crashing through the pickup truck and into the semi.

This was deemed to be the pickup driver's fault, of course....

And imagine what we could accomplish if the researchers were free to soak the wires in LSD and tires in cannabis solutions?

Researchers probably could do that if they had a valid scientific reason and went through the proper procedures. The problem is that most people aren't interested in soaking wires or tires, but soaking minds. The result of that is well known.

Marijuana Smokers Face Rapid Lung Destruction -- As Much As 20 Years Ahead Of Tobacco Smokers
Marijuana Use Precedes Psychosis

We could have free energy and flying cars, because the laws of physics are like, whatever man.

We already have flying cars, but they aren't really economical. There is more "free lunch" than there is "free energy".

People should never confuse mind-altering substances with reality-altering substances.

I wonder why you got downmodded? It's a true statement. In fact, sometimes you don't even need a badge, just be on the neighborhood watch.

Yes heavens forbid you actually Google before replying.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2012/03/22/obesity-might-lower-cognitive-function/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19236339

The above inflammation related.

Smart to question sources ignorant to stop researching.

"I haven't seen reports of rapes at Tea Party rallies, unlike the shitfests spawned by left-wing OWSers."

[Citation please]

Crawl out from under your rock:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/sexual-assaults-occupy-wall-street-camps/story?id=14873014#.T2oJvOweRos

http://gothamist.com/2011/11/05/occupy_wall_street_erects_women-onl.php

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/nyc-reporter-stays-night-at-occupy-wall-st-scary-place-where-rape-threat-is-very-real/

The question of whether "bias intimidation" should be be an extra punishment is somewhat unclear to me, but I mostly come down on the side that is shouldn't exist in that form. But that is a completely different premise than you originally forwarded isn't it? The legal definition of "bias intimidation" is excruciatingly straightforward[1], and your cries of free speech aren't applicable to this situation. The defendant was legally free to say whatever he wanted to the victim as he would anyone else. However he wasn't free to behave in a manner that would violate the law which pre-existed any bias intimidation law.

[1] http://abcnews.go.com/US/rutgers-juror-dharun-ravis-words-convcited/story?id=15922681#.T2OvVDWbDRY

You claim Obama authorized waterboarding. Care to supply a citation?

Very recently President Obama said waterboarding is wrong, is torture and he was glad that practice was ended. Read here where President Obama banned waterboarding in January 2009.

But I can provide you with a link in which the author of a book opposing DST blames golf courses for the extension of DST, and you can find many more such links with a Google search on "daylight savings time golf courses" or the like. So to convince me that golf courses did not lobby for extended DST, I'm going to need more than just your say-so.

Your citation of "morning hours when it's cooler" suggests a very localized view of DST. Golfers prefer to golf when the weather is nice for golf, and whether tht's the morning or not depends quite a bit on local climate. Anyway, here's the link. http://abcnews.go.com/Business/t/story?id=975472&page=1

Considering Obama's call for NASA to reach out to the Muslim world, I wonder if NASA would have fired him if his name happened to be Mohammed.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2010/07/white-house-nasa-defend-comments-about-nasa-outreach-to-muslim-world-criticized-by-conservatives/

Even the current system isn't correct. The Republican Party holds voting accuracy as near sacred as part of their party talking points. Take a look at how they handled a primary season where they should have absolute control over the rules:
* Iowa went from Romney to Santorum, though a statistical tie, because someone mistyped a 2 as 22: http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/01/18/rick-santorum-might-have-actually-won-the-iowa-caucuses
* Maine almost didn't even count a whole county: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/02/maines-miscount-one-county-might-be-included-after-saturday/
* Nobody can seem to make up their minds on what to do about Florida. It is supposed to be, normally, a winner take all state. It moved its primary up and got sanctioned by the party by having its delegates cut in-half. Also, it may or may not be proportional. We'll find out in August: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/26/2610390/fight-looms-over-fla-delegates.html
* Missouri has two elections this year. The first doesn't county, but everyone is assuming it will. The one that was held already was state mandated, but the state Republicans, not wanting to lose half their delegates, have decided that one won't count. They'll have a second one that will really count. Note : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/07/missouri-primary-2012-explained_n_1257817.html
* She was allowed to vote once it was all sorted out, but an 84-year-old was initially told she was dead when she appeared at the polls: http://boston.cbslocal.com/2012/03/07/84-year-old-fall-river-woman-tries-to-vote-told-shes-dead/

My apologies to any Republicans I offended with these results. I only used these examples as they are near immediate in time scale.

The current voting system is full of flaws. It has been full of flaws. It will likely remain full of flaws. No need to worry about hackers mucking up an election when a typo can swing an election, and never have gotten caught if someone didn't post an image to FaceBook. So I don't see on-line voting as some type of corrupting influence on a pristine system.

The problem I see here is in the oversight. Considering it took two days for Washington D.C. to notice, I would say the real problem was not so much that the system got hacked, but D.C. didn't care enough about the election to monitor it as it was going on. The same lackluster oversight could still swing *cough*Iowa*cough* a close election.

Hey AC, I googled a citation for what you're talking about, because I honestly had no clue. This is very interesting also.

“It was just crushing to hear the chairman’s reason to not allow my testimony,” Fluke told ABC News. “I can understand that [the issue] is connected to religion, but I don’t understand how you can have an open conversation without hearing from the women who have been personally affected by this.”

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/02/rep-darrell-issa-bars-minority-witness-a-woman-on-contraception-2/

By the way, it might be happening again.

Seriously? Is the media that fucking oblivous?

Somebody opened a cardboard box on the plane to unload supplies such as napkins, food, etc. They put the box cutter up in the overhead bin for a moment and forgot about it. That's what happened.

A plane is typically cleaned between flights in 10 minutes or less. It's very hectic. Honestly anyone who really wanted to stash a weapon on board would be able to conceal it in a much better place than just sitting on the overhead bin.

By the way, it might be happening again.

Mmmm. Pretty sure it won't. I'll bet cash that no flight crew or passenger will stand down to box cutters at this point. We've seen how that movie ends.

Which is why we should look to empowering, not humilating, the people in the plane. That's the only sure way to prevent another hijacking.

At the time of the 9/11/2001 attacks, it was legal to bring a box cutter aboard an airplane.

Untrue. Pocket knives were legal. Box cutters and straight razors have never been allowed as best I can determine. (Source: planesafe.org)

Besides, there's reason to suspect that they were never taken through security in the first place, making the entire question moot.

By the way, it might be happening again.

These programs are perfectly sustainable.

You seriously believe that? http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/entitlement-reform-lawmakers-stuck-medicare-medicaid-social-security/story?id=12933651

57% of our total budget this year went to your "promises to seniors" (well, and Medicaid)-- yet I bet you can't name many people receiving benefits that can tell you that their Social Security check is "plenty to live on" or that their Medicare in anyway adequately covers their medical expenses. And fuck the people who happen to be in the "ailing 50 to 62" age range, because they're shit out of luck -- maybe they'll be comforted by the fact that IF they make it to age 62, they'll get their money, but for now they have to give it to the government to pay for the cost of the people just slightly healthier & older than they are

And that's 57% now -- projections have these programs spiraling WAY out of control in total expenses -- how in hell can you claim they're sustainable?

If you want to "make due on your promise to seniors", so be it, but don't pretend these programs are somehow salvageable or continuable. They should be phased out _immediately_ on a pro-rated benefit basis and we should go back to square one to come with an idea that works, like mandatory 401ks.

World War II?
Are you fucking kidding me?

You acted only when it was in your own economic interest.

You mean like when Japan attacked the United States, followed about a week later by a declaration of war against the United States by Germany?

Of course that sort of glosses over the assistance the US provided the UK prior to entering the war as well.

You don't really seem to have a firm grasp on this subject.

Fucking douchenozzle.

Easily explained, I suspect.

When you mentioned shipping containers, were you thinking of this? http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=162480#.T1RLHpgtA20

Uranium in a pipe, like the Little Boy design, sailed through security a year *after* ABC publicized the exact same test before.

And I can be taken down for trying to take nail clippers in my carry on.... sheesh! What a fucking joke the whole infrastructure is.

When you mentioned shipping containers, were you thinking of this?
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=162480#.T1RLHpgtA20

Uranium in a pipe, like the Little Boy design, sailed through security a year *after* ABC publicized the exact same test before.

the officer who gave the order can then be charged with

Except that the article suggests they are not charged with anything. We have case-after-case of cops harassing and/or arresting people for filming them, many of which are resolved in the photographer's favor, and yet the taxpayers, not the cops, are the ones who pay for it.

Consider, for instance, the case of Sean and Erik Ibarra who we had to pay $1.7 million for the cops' assault and destruction of evidence and the Ibarra's subsequent arrest for "evading arrest".

Charges for the cops? None. And do you know what happened when the Ibarras asked why? The DA deleted his emails. Then we got to pay for his contempt defense. Of course, it's just contempt of court, not an actual destruction of evidence charge, so he was given a dinky little fine, which of course he appealed at our expense.

Or take the cops that harassed people who were photographing a drunk cop who slammed into a schoolbus. The cops were seen covering up beer bottles and the hospital found the cop to be over .200 (out of .08) yet internal affairs stood by the cops who "investigated" the wreck and insisted that the cop wasn't drunk for weeks.

Average commute distance in the US is 16 miles. You're not slightly above average. You're way at the far edge of the curve.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Traffic/story?id=485098&page=1

Even if we assume that Manning was doing 'the right thing by [caring] about freedom of information, exposing war crimes, and holding the powerful responsible for their atrocities , his acts are those of a vigilante. Thus, his methods subvert his cause.

This right here is plain nonsense. Sometimes it's necessary to break the law to improve justice. When the law protects evil, working within the law is evil.

The reason working societies mostly make acting within the law the only accepted determination of "good" and "evil" are that these things can be relative. Think abortion; drug use; immigration; sexuality; gambling; "marriage"; colonialism; slavery; education; evolution; climate policy... even contract and tort law... Reasonable people disagree about the correct position on these and more. Some have strongly held beliefs.

Sometimes it's necessary to break the law

Ok, which? Laws against killing? Should an anti-abortion activist kill aborters? Too incendiary? Killing is absolute?

How about property laws then? Should stealing from teachers who teach (or don't) evolution be OK? What if it's just data being stolen? Credit info? Diaries?

Maybe we don't steal from people we dislike... maybe we just remove the veneer of privacy; let the world judge them? Maybe we release their communications? Their address? Maybe we release evidence of what may be bad acts (or good acts) and let the world judge?

  Maybe it's just OK to do this to governments? Laws that protect life and property and whatever apply only to individuals who have not acted on behalf of a government? Or maybe that's just property laws?

I guess I don't get it.

Potentially true, but not applicable in this case. Cavdar lost all four of his limbs in 1998 after he was accidentally electrocuted. http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2012/02/27/triumph-then-failure-in-first-four-limb-transplant/

You mean the ones that acted as the catalyst for the Arab Spring?

We keep hearing that from fans and boosters of Wikileaks, but it simply isn't true. Do you really think that the Arabs living under bad governments needed someone to tell them that they had badly run corrupt governments when it was a fact that assulted them nearly every day of their lives? Do you not know that many of those countries had been simmering under revolution or revolt for years? I guess the "White Man's Burden" is still with us in the form of "Wikileaks".

A Tunisian man named Mohamed Bouazizi is generally credited with starting the Arab Spring after he set himself on fire when the police confiscated his fruit stand in December 2010. Less than a month after his self-immolation – he eventually died – President Zine al Abdedine Ben Ali fled Tunisia after 23 years in office. Several other self-immolations quickly follow Bouazizi’s, particularly in Egypt where that revolution would start a little more than a month later. -- Moroccan Protesters the Latest to Set Themselves on Fire

The facts are that on 17 December last year, Mohamed, a market trader whose father had died when he was three and who had been helping to support his family financially since the age of 10, set himself on fire after a dispute with a government official over where he could sell his fruit and vegetables. At the time, it was widely reported that the municipal inspector, a woman named Fedia Hamdi with a reputation for strictness, had slapped Mohamed across the face – the ultimate insult in such a patriarchal Arab community. The confrontation seemed to pit an ordinary man, struggling to make a living, against the uniformed symbol of a corrupt regime. Bouazizi's suicide at the age of 26 was seen by many as an act borne of his intense frustration with authoritarian rule. It became the domino that fell and triggered a chain of revolutions across the Arab world. -- The slap that sparked a revolution

I think Ekirch's research is obviously correct but his conclusions might be a little off. it's well known already people tend to lose productivity during the afternoon in the modern day workplace. This is why the Europeans have their siesta . Prior to the industrial era and the advent of lighting yes, we may have had our circadian clocks synced to this pattern prof. Ekirch talks about. However, it is Post-Industrial now, many countries around the world have constant non natural light and many individuals work around the clock and have varying shifts. As a result, the need for sleep - or "power naps" - hasn't changed, our clocks have just synced to a different schedule. Where you are in the world and the personal schedule you have will determine the optional time for that cat nap needed to recharge.
Again, it's not that we don't need to "sleep" twice in a day, more than likely we do. there is evidence that points to its benefits, however as we are finding out with medicine today, it would be and should be tailored to the individual and their schedule.

Remember to record everything on video; just ask Salvatore Miglino
The Evil Bitch of a Mother-In-Law called 911 and lied immediately after she shot him three times in a planned ambush. Fortunately for him, she's as stupid as she is evil and used a crap ass .22 caliber automatic that jammed. If he didn't have the recording, he would be the one in jail.

that Obama isn't quite as bad as Hitler.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/02/santorums-doomsday-warning-voters/

To be fair, Obama hasn't gassed 6 million minorities. Yet.

That depends. For example, people with Russian/US dual citizenship can legally enter Russia without a passport (though it would be somewhat complicated) or visa because constitution guarantees that Russian citizens can't be denied the right to enter the country.

What you seem to be saying is that Russia is now more free than the US? I wander how things will be in next 20 years.

http://stateswithoutnations.blogspot.com/2009/04/us-citizen-deported-to-mexico-shipped.html

http://abcnews.go.com/US/14-year-american-citizen-deported-colombia-assuming-false/story?id=15298238

US citizens reported from US

• In the test vehicles (presumably the ones with red plates), there must be 2 people in the vehicle at all times, with one able to immediately take over control.
• Companies must register their testing intentions with the state, such as testing in fog or snow/ice. They must also share results with the state.
• There must be a "black box" type data recorder that records and stores all sensor data for 30 seconds prior to a collision.
• Once a vehicle is certified to operate without a driver, a person can operate it without being physically present in the vehicle.
• The operator is liable regardless of whether they are present or not.
• There are exceptions for operating an autonomous vehicle while talking on a cell phone (illegal in Nevada without a hands-free device) or texting (also illegal to do while driving), but not for being drunk.

Seems like reasonable rules to me.

"If they would've applied that $30 mil as an investment in the development of privatized human spaceflight"

They'd rather spend 36 million to have Hangar 1 at Moffett Field recovered to store their private jets in.
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/south_bay&id=8461995

Wilson Avenue school, for instance, had to be closed because it was flooded with water laced with benzene

Well, you are talking about New Jersey, aren't you?

Your best bet when shopping for schools is to find out what the average property tax paid in the area was last year. That's really the only way to find out if the school is worth it or not -- how well it's funded.

hahahahahahaha. My home city of Newark, NJ is closing 7 schools for underperforming. Severely.

Our schools are falling apart across the board, too. Wilson Avenue school, for instance, had to be closed because it was flooded with water laced with benzene.

We spend just shy of $17,000 per student. So no, funding alone is not a good indicator at all.

Even the people I know who are not CS / IT want more, for photo-editing / video-editing / audio-editing / games / media / etc. Take forever to list all the applications for a little more power.. The people I have in mind are the majority of computer users out there, not the exceptions who would be fine with a Commodore 64.

Dude, the majority of computer users out there don't do any video-editing, audio-editing, or games. The only thing they do with media and play it, and the only place they play it from is youtube.

You''ll always find some people who are happy with one car for the next three decades, but the national average is a new car every 3 or so years.

Try ten. Which is really my point. You have a biased sample. You're around well-educated people who can figure out how to turn their computer off without asking a geek (and can afford to buy a new car every 3 years). For your sample, your advice is pretty good, and you realize they might need a little bit more oomph with their machine. You're fooling yourself into thinking that's good advice for the general population, though. I knew someone who would turn her computer off by pulling the power cord, because pressing the power button left the computer still "on" (it went into sleep mode). That's the majority of computer users right there: they don't need a more powerful machine because they're never going to do anything with it other than reading e-mail (without exchange, from their browser on webmail) and browsing whatever links were sent to them via e-mail (some of which they'll visit regularly. Once they were sent a link to youtube, and now they visit youtube without the link). The browser is the only application they use.

There's imprecise, and there's "we fucked up." My google-fu is weak tonight and I can't find a study showing different sector IPO first-day results. But there's this:

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/ipo-stocks-fared-15525164#.TzDCYJjRUyE

Linkedin: priced at $45, closed at $94.25. Linkedin got screwed out of $45/share.

Zygna: priced at $10, down 5% on first day. Excellent! Zygna didn't lose anything.

Jive: priced at $12, closed up 25%. Not bad for the underwriters and their freinds.

Of course nobody would take the deal - because the game is fixed due to conflicts of interest. The underwriters have a definite conflict of interest - they flog the shares to their customers, and why would they want their customers to take a hit on the first day? Who doesn't want a nice juicy no-risk gain for their brokerage clients and buddies?

And plus, everybody wins - just some people win more than others. That's why Google did when it did when it IPO'd, but that's a game that nobody really wanted to play; they had to, because of the money.

It'd be the same as FB, if they wanted to play.

I believe you are actually missing my point(s):

There is a potential "man-in-the-middle" attack for just about anything, depending on your level of paranoia, and what you consider sensitive information.
FB is an opt-in service.

Now, if you throw away those two a-priori considerations, go on to suggest that pictures of someone getting drunk is highly private and sensitive information, and ignore the fact that the user specifically clicked "OK" on the terms of service to have that data be utilized for purposes other than communication, then a resounding YES comes forth presenting FB as a malicious attack on private user information.

But if you step back from the idiocy and realize that the user basically agrees to his or her own information being used in such a way, how the hell is it an attack, as much as it is complacency on the end of the user in allowing FB (or any other corporation) to do something possibly unethical?

The only real difference is that with the post office, they aren't opting to do anything really unethical (and hence don't need the complacency EULA) with the information they could potentially harvest, store, and data-mine. And that's just the USPS. Other countries with more strict tariffs and import/export regulations will often open parcels and inspect the contents to insure nobody is trying to send or receive expensive goods duty-free (Very similar to what TSA does with your international baggage FYI). But is this a surprise? Nope, customs (and TSA) even leaves you a pretty little note informing you that this has occurred. And with the author's phenomenally insightful capability to ignore the concept of user-complacency, suddenly half the world's government-instituted postal systems are raging "man-in-the-middle" attacks.

And finally, here's a link of VISA predicting your probability of divorce with 90% accuracy, just for shits.
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/visa-predicts-divorce/story?id=10320638#.TzBo1rEgekQ

NASA has limited funds these days, and there isn't much to gain for them in a mission which they can't even take full credit for or get much PR out of.

This is hardly anything new. NASA has always been very isolationist when it came to working with other space agencies. ISS was a very rare exception, and there has been tension even in that case (with NASA and the Russian butting heads over space tourism, for example). They've just never played well with others.

Quite a lot of people used them to donate to the Haiti Earthquake relief effort.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/HaitiEarthquake/haiti-earthquake-donations-haiti-relief-efforts-text-message/story?id=9551199#.TzAdM8XQInE

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/charity/haiti.asp

The vote on Tuesday was because in those days you couldn't mess with the Sabbath so it had to be a week day.
Furthermore we were an agrarian society for the most part, so employers didn't even enter in to it.
Voting was set late in the year, after harvest, when most farmers really didn't have all that much going on.
Travel by horse means a day to the county seat, vote, go home taking another day.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2008/01/why-we-vote-on/