Slashdot Mirror

Fax cables from cablegate!

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wikileaks-indictment-us-charge-julian-assange-espionage-act/story?id=12369173

"[The Espionage Act] criminalizes all casual discussions of such disclosures by persons not authorized to receive them to other persons not authorized to receive them... in other words, all tweets sending around those countless news stories, all blogging on them, and all dinner party conversations about their contents"

http://wikileaks.tard.is/cable/2008/07/08STOCKHOLM494.html

Actually, the judge only declared the provision of the new law that requires everyone to buy health insurance unconstitutional, not the entire law (link). The provision that prevents an insurance company from canceling your insurance because you got sick is not affected by this, for example.

This is just one round of a fight that will certainly end up being decided by the US Supreme Court. There's no reason to panic or celebrate (depending on your point of view) yet.

According to US intelligence, there's 100 members of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. At some point when do we get to say "hey, having a few hundred thousand troops to fight at most a few hundred people doesn't make any sense"?

Then you didn't read the article nor do you really understand how it works

Anyone who hasn't forgotten their teenager years knows how it works. It's groupthink.

The ones who propose targets, build cases, and participate in debates, those are the ones who essentially "Run Anonymous"

More bored teenagers that learn to control the group. Nothing new, even when I was still in highschool and that was ages ago. The alpha of the group just became faceless and uses HTTP more often instead of a louder voice.

For a majority of Anonymous, it's not about principles or values, but they're activities are promoting someone elses (or even multiple people's) values.

You're overthinking this. Back when I was a teenager we had a protest march against the incompetence of the justice department. A few people handed out fliers, and the rest said "Oh hey, I was bored anyway. Let's go there." Many weren't even interested in promoting someone's values, nor even aware of the issues the march was about. Needless to say that it ended in vandalism.

No agent provocateurs, no people with a cause, just plain old "Look at the crowd here, let's go trash something. Fuck yeah!" groupthink. Try getting these numbers for something non-disruptive. Go on. Go to /b/ and become the fabled mastermind that herds the flock into doing something productive. Bonus points if they get out of their chair.

Are you actually trying to argue that Anonymous has made the net a worse place?

Are you actually trying to argue that Anonymous hasn't? Really now come on. That was Ebaums, right? It's bored kids pulling silly tasteless pranks, sometimes funny, sometimes not so much. Sure, they're not a "threat" to the Internet other than being obnoxious.

For every "cause" they've supported they've gone and harassed at least a dozen people who did nothing wrong but be at the wrong place at the wrong time (on the Internet).

Assange doesn't hate the USA, Assange hates all governments. He's more like the archetypal anarchist from the late 1800s than your common garden variety USA hater in the world today.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/official-wikileaks-greatest-danger-loss-trust/story?id=12263971

The chief Wikileaker who the U.S. promised today to prosecute said his Internet site was just beginning to unload its diplomatic secrets and said the documents will skewer "lying, corrupt and murderous leadership from Bahrain to Brazil."

What does that mean? Assange hates Brazil? No, Assange hates all authority. Next he's going after corporations, big banks. I heartily applaud that.

Assange is not anti-American. He hates the American government as much as any other government. He's a bomb thrower in the traditional anarchist sense of a century ago. He hates all authority.

I don't believe that everyone I know who has an iPhone (inculding myself, and my entire immediate family) is an overly emotional nutcase.

That seems hard to believe with Apple getting hit with an class-action law suit. There are plenty of people who will probably never going to buy an Apple phone again.

One example, from http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=weather/hurricane&id=6428478:

"...but US Representative Ron Paul voted "no" to a disaster recovery aid package that would help his devastated district."

http://www.ontheissues.org/tx/ron_paul.htm says two contradictory(*) things:
Put 65 projects into 2006 bills, worth $4B to his district. (Dec 2007)
No on all earmarks, even those he proposes for his district. (Dec 2007)

(*) Arguably contradictory. I think that is hypocritical, but can see why he does it. Also, the 'projects' aren't necessarily earmarks... they could be statewide projects that are partially in his district.

John Boehner, the incoming Speaker of the House, was one of 12 kids growing up in Reading, Ohio (a suburb of Cincinnati). His family is certainly not part of the elite. Here's an article about his upbringing.

Jeffrey Immelt, chairman of the board and CEO of General Electric, grew up in Finneytown (actually Springfield Township near Cincinnati) and his parents were a schoolteacher and a manager at GE (oooh, maybe there's that elite you're talking about). Here's his Wikipedia entry.

That's just two examples among millions of people who have done better than their parents did. Some people blame "The Man" or the elite for their own inability to get ahead in life. I hope this isn't you.

"To us, he was hysterical. The long list of straight dramatic acting roles demonstrated to us that he would be perfect. When we watched those movies, we laughed."

I doubt laughing at someone has ever resulted in more global hilarity :D Love ya forever you fellow crazy canuck!

Eat Dirt . . .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geophagy
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Diet/story?id=1167623&page=1

There's of course the tiny little issue :

a) you're right, there's no threat, and lifting security precautions won't change a thing b) you're wrong, there is a threat, and lifting security precautions means a weekly re-run of 9/11

If b) is true you're asking thousands of people to die just so you can have a little easier time at an airport. And, frankly, anyone reading the news knows perfectly well b) is true.

What you say isn't true, btw, you have the option of paying enough to charter a flight and avoid the continental U.S. altogether. The problem isn't what the sovereign united states do, the problem is that you are prepared to accept any amount of discomfort for a few bucks.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. You forgot option c): There is a threat, albeit not a statistically significant one, and the "security precautions" we are currently taking are little more than a sleight-of-hand intended to make the flying public feel (no pun intended) like the government is doing something to address their fears. If the threat were anywhere near as real as you imagined it to be, we would *still* have airplanes blowing up weekly. Remember the underwear bomber, the shoe bomber and Flight 93? Those were all thwarted by the actions of other passengers on the airplane, not the TSA. What we have right now is an out-of-control government bureaucracy trampling on our 4th Amendment rights, and still letting terrorists and entertainers smuggle contraband on board airplanes.

Regarding charter flights: c'mon, that's seriously disingenuous, not to mention one-sided. If you are that afraid of being blown up on an airliner, YOU could use charter flights rather than commercial airlines. "the problem is that you are prepared to violate others' civil rights for a few bucks." It's no less true when you say it than it is when I do. Just sayin. Furthermore, what you are saying isn't even true. TSA does require some screening, even for chartered aircraft, if the aircraft weighs more than 12,500 pounds (see here for details) and they were trying to expand that program to privately owned and operated aircraft in 2009, although that measure was dropped due to public outcry (see here and here). So no, you can't really take a charter flight without being screened, although for now you could fly in a private jet, if you can afford the cost (you probably can't, unless your last name is Pelosi, Clinton or Bush).

I've got a desktop in the basement with just a vga cable, usb cable and audio coming up through the floor. This way he (and, more importantly, his 2 year-old brother) can't damage the CD drive, etc. Tray-loading drives are immensely popular with the "break things" set.

He spends the vast majority of his computer time in Chrome, at:

Starfall (by far my personal favorite, if you've got a toddler around, spend some quality Starfall time with them)
PBS Kids
Playhouse Disney
Nick Jr.

We also have 2-3 Dora games installed, as well as a Cool School keyboard, which came with some very cool games. Amazon carries them, and eBay has quite a few for cheap.

He loves Photobooth on my macbook, so I found Snap, and set up a webcam for him to make crazy pictures of himself and his brother.

Also, I would make sure that there's an easy-to-find shortcut to good ol' Paint. He loves playing with it, and it's one of the more creative things he can do, rather than just doing what a game or a website tells him to.

Well, if nothing else this might motivate him to get fit... I mean, the physical demands aren't that great compared to the skills needed to drive that car.

Driving a real car that level, undergoing constant changing G forces, takes a great deal of core strength. Otherwise you flop around like a rag doll and it is impossible to employ the required skills with any finesse. No doubt, there is a marketing angle, but Jimmie Johnson won the Associated Press Athlete of the Year of 2009.

This is supposed to be "News for Nerds" - so why link to a Fox News article with almost no technical information whatsoever? For example: what nuclide was involved? How high was the activity?
After some searching on Google News, I found this article. Apparently, it was 684 MBq of Germanium (which should mean it's 76Ge). Unfortunately, that isotope is not in any of my data sheets, so I can't tell you what that means in terms of dose rate...

Have elderly parents who need medical supplies? They'll make you wet yourself.

abcnews.go.com: Thomas Sawyer

Small kids? They'll grope them while they scream for help, wondering why their parents aren't protecting them.

examiner.com

Cancer survivor? Have some more rads!

I saw an article discussing this, but I can't seem to find the link right now. About the best I can do is Bruce Schneier's article that discusses, among other things, the case against ionizing radiation in general.

...or become fap-fodder for the guy in the back room?

According to snopes.com, the story reported here is most likely satire. I couldn't find a reputable link anywhere else, so I'd say it hasn't happened yet, but I imagine it's only a matter of time.

HTH!

Free speech is causing harm!

Just like yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theater, or releasing the names and addresses of informants against Mafia hit men, or the names and locations of informants against Al Qaeda & Taliban cut-throats & beheaders like Wikileaks is doing.

Dead informants mean fewer people to pass on information on scum like Shahzad, who tried to bomb Times Square with a bomb like this.

Calling himself a Muslim soldier, Shahzad pleaded guilty in June to 10 terrorism and weapons counts. He said the Pakistan Taliban provided him with more than $15,000 and five days of explosives training late last year and early this year, months after he became a U.S. citizen.

Would even a Wembley stadium type attack convince even most people many on Slashdot that terrorism is a serious problem? I wonder.

Bin Laden's demand to the United States (The first thing that we are calling you to is Islam.) is that we all convert to his brand Islam, change our governments to observe Sharia, or he and his minions will continue to try to kill us. Their ultimate goal is to conquer the world for Islam, not simply get the US out of anywhere, destroy Israel, or anything else. Al Qaeda believes it is justified in killing 4,000,000 Americans in pursuit of its goal. As it is, Al Qaeda's world wide body count must be easily in the tens of thousands by now.

Meanwhile, planning continues for the next Al Qaeda assault in Europe, following up on the successful mass attacks in London and Madrid, various assassinations, and the failed attacks in Germany, France, and other places. (Hopefully there is a well placed informant or two that will survive the Wikileaks releases.)

I wonder how many on Slashdot are members of the Internet Jihad, or are otherwise radicalized and trying to influence opinion?

“I imagine how the great jihad will take place, how the Muslims will win, God willing, and rule the whole world, and establish the greatest empire once again!!!” reads another Internet posting from Mr. Abdulmutallab.

This is not the secular, political language of resistance against foreign occupation. It is the language of apocalyptic salvation. It has nothing to do with Iraq, Afghanistan or the Palestinians, although countless young Muslims identify passionately with stories of perceived injustice. Radical Islam claims that martyrdom is the ultimate act of faith – the highest duty of a believer, next to the worship of Allah itself.

“

That's what your saying, cause if everyone gave a few dollars to be shared, then no one would have to worry about one entity giving billions.

What did I say? What I said was I wanted to support those I support and not give to those I oppose. I also want to freely be able enjoy my speech. If I want to pay for ads for a candidate, I don't want government telling me I can not do so. Whether I am in the the ads myself or I get others who also support the candidate to appear, or whether we pool our resources to produce the ads. Then place them.

I'm sorry that doesn't seem to make sense to you.

By the same terms, I'm sorry you can't understand that. I don't want my speech limited by you, government, or anyone else. I thought it was BS the Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that corporations could fund political ads, a corporation is not a person and does not have the same rights.

You seem to think that your individual donation means something It doesn't even make a blip on the screen compared to what a corp donates.

So thousands of people donating to Obama's campaign didn't help him get elected? HAHA!!!

he cares about the donation from the Koch brothers.

If anything the Koch brothers funded McCain not Obama, yet Obama not McCain is president. How intelligent does a person have to be to understand that? However much apparently you're not intelligent enough.

Oh, and not all of the wealthy support the same candidates. While the Koch brothers support Republicans, and anti-global warming groups, George Soros who Forbes ranked 35th richest person in the world in 2010 supports Obama. And Warren Buffet said raise my taxes.

Now can you understand that? Or are you too stupid?

Falcon

1.5 million people have died as a result of our attack on Iraq. White ones, brown ones, Americans, Iraqis, mostly civilians and many of them not from bombs but from starvation after the infrastructure needed for their water, food, and medical care was destroyed.

You will be relieved to know that those figures are almost certainly not true.

ORB's "million Iraqi deaths" survey seriously flawed, new study shows. More here.

Leftist billionaire George Soros underwrote the widely quoted Lancet study written by an anti-war professor. As time goes by it keeps looking worse, and worse.

The Wikileaks contents tend to undermine them as well:

The logs showed there were more than 109,000 violent deaths between 2004 and the end of 2009.

They included 66,081 civilians, 23,984 people classed as "enemy", 15,196 members of the Iraqi security forces, and 3,771 coalition troops.

Iraqi news site in english.

E.g. http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/john-tyner-tsa-security-check-sexual-molestation/story?id=12153388

That's kind of lame. It's just a one-paragraph summary of the game.

A more promising approach would be to start with a play by play summary. Football play-by-plays look like this:

• 1st and 10 at ATL 20 (Shotgun) M.Ryan pass short right to T.Gonzalez to ATL 23 for 3 yards (J.Johnson).
• 2nd and 7 at ATL 23 M.Ryan sacked at ATL 13 for -10 yards (T.Suggs).
• 3rd and 17 at ATL 13 (Shotgun) M.Ryan pass deep right to R.White pushed ob at ATL 41 for 28 yards (E.Reed).
• 1st and 10 at ATL 41 (Shotgun) M.Ryan pass short right to R.White pushed ob at ATL 46 for 5 yards (D.Landry).

It's clearly possible to turn that into a sports announcer yelling at you. After all, an engine for that is built into EA Madden NFL. With a sports statistics database, you can throw in stuff like "This is Reeds's biggest gain so far this season".

Somebody has probably already done this.

I'm guessing he was talking about "The Lord's Resistance Army" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord%27s_Resistance_Army) and the current oppression of homosexuals in Uganda:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uganda_Anti-Homosexuality_Bill
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/10/20/ugandan-embassy-defends-equal-rights-gay-list-appears-newspaper/

The current furor over homosexuality has been fueled by talks given by American Evangelicals there: "The bill was introduced several months after a visit by several American evangelicals, who spoke at a conference called the "Seminar on Exposing the Homosexual Agenda." One of them was Scott Lively, a pastor from Springfield, MA, who believes that countries like Uganda can still protect themselves from what he sees as the scourge of the gay agenda. "These are good Christians; better Christians than there are here in the states," says Lively. "They care about each other. And I think the reason they're pushing so hard on this law is that they don't want to see what happened to our country happen over there."
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/anti-homosexuality-bill-uganda-global-uproar/story?id=10045436

There's also the continuing problem of naming witches:
"African Children Denounced As "Witches" By Christian Pastors"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/18/african-children-denounce_n_324943.html

If you vote for someone & they do, don't vote for them again.

Those lying politicians are expendable like ammo rounds in a belt-fed machine gun, and just as plentiful. Sure, you won't vote for that one any more, but there are twenty more waiting to replace him. And each politician chips another speck of freedom away. Give them time and nothing will remain.

If they do want to join the rest of us: shape up in the personal freedoms / democratic department first.

The most modern theory of political correctness, maintaned by those lying politicians, says that its not "them" who should shape up but it's "you" who has to shape down. Otherwise it would be unfair, or something.

they can take the freedoms that my ancestors fought for, from my cold, dead hands.

They don't care about the temperature of your hands. You probably will be more convenient to them dead. Not that I reject your choice, of course.

A quick look around shows that this story isnt on Fox, or MSNBC, or CNN, or ABC, or CBS, or igoogle feeds, or Yahoo

USA Today http://content.usatoday.com/communities/greenhouse/post/2010/11/white-house-edited-oil-drilling-report/1

One of many on CNN http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2010/11/10/report-white-house-edit-led-to-errant-claim-on-drilling-moratorium/

Wash Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/10/AR2010111007479.html

FOX http://nation.foxnews.com/offshore-oil-drilling/2010/11/10/wh-cheated-sell-its-drilling-ban

ABC http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=12112909

There are literally hundreds of articles on the subject. If you can't find it in the "mainstream press", then you aren't looking.

Rich banker gets to escape felony hit and run charges, because the judge felt "a felony charge would hurt his ability to make shit tons of money".

It was the DA, not the judge, who decided to seek two misdemeanor charges instead of a felony charge.

Googling for "Martin Joel Erzinger" and consulting the non-emotional news items [such as this one], it seems the DA thought this course of action more likely to (1) guarantee conviction [thereby resulting in damage to his permanent record and maybe prison time] and (2) guarantee restitution.

Perhaps the DA is a scumbag with a special place in his heart for rich people, but I'm so sick of media (and blogger) spin that I'm going to say that maybe, just maybe, he knows more about the ins and outs of Colorado felony hit-and-run convictions than I do and was acting in good faith.

First, just because I don't worship Obama as you do does not mean I'm trolling. But you, like so many others think that someone disagreeing with you equals trolling.

No, you aren't trolling because you disagree with me or don't like him. You are trolling when you start busting out your "Messiah" crap.

I don't have time to respond to all your crap, so I'll focus on the last one (since I've already bothered to explore that one in detail for you). So first, basically it sounds like what you are saying is "it's not really important that you tried to lie...what's more important is that when asked about it, you admit it". Sorry, but I don't agree with that at all. But even more important, in the example I cited, the White House did NOT come clean about what it was doing. They were merely fixing up inconsistencies in testimony, as if they knew better than the scientists:
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/story?id=3772102&page=1

I'm sorry, but that sort of response is worse than the current one in question. Assuming both incident were maliciously done, the Obama response is "we didn't mean to do it" whereas the bush response is "oh, we meant it because we know the science better than the scientist, so we know what they MEANT to say".

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/gallery?section=news/local/los_angeles&id=7776159&photo=3

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/gallery?section=news/local/los_angeles&id=7776159&photo=3

Digital Archaeology Show Reveals 'Lost' Web Sites

Yeah, they're not hard to find...

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/36783.html
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_timothy__071011_corporate_donations_.htm
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/democrats-rake-record-donations-corporations/story?id=9777742

Btw, since we are on the subject of Soros: http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/viewSubCategory.asp?id=589

It took out a cruise ship nearby in the pacific: http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/carnival-splendor-cruise-ship-rescue/story?id=12095096

What a cool weapon to use against enemy invading forces' ships: knock out their engines and power, and leave their troops adrift. The troops on the ship riot when the hot buffet doesn't get refilled.

You're missing the point. No one is contesting that NOTAMs are timestamped in ZULU. No one is arguing it's a bad idea. No one disputes this at all.

The actual argument is that the NOTAM you cite isn't applicable, because this launch occurred at "at around 5 p.m. Pacific time"... or about 01Z 9 October. Yes, the date is right. But that NOTAM wasn't effective yet, and wouldn't be for another 19 hours after the fact.

Seriously. When you find yourself at the bottom of a hole, stop digging.

That was... falling with style!

Perhaps you've hear of the infamous Swiss bank account?

I have, and they are useless now.
At least for Americans.

where in that article does it say he apologized?

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wirestory?id=12040758&page=4 is one of the many pages that reference his 1996 apology. Just google "boehner 1996 apology tobacco" and pick your website.

Oh, you can have a pre-existing condition before you are born.

Nothing compares to the power to push a pencil. Just sayin'.

Of course the insurance companies did not want this. They posted record profits in 2009, even while record numbers of people lost coverage. They were making money off of Americans getting screwed out of their health coverage. Why would they want that gravy train to stop? But, the bigger question is why do you want to give that gravy train back to them?

So you think Timothy McVey was acting alone and it was an isolated incident?

Whare about the white American terrorists? Sorting by color only serves bolster the point that Americans are zionists out to get rid of anybody that makes them uncomfortable.

Sorry, but the country of origin doesn't matter. When you play political games and arm warlords expect reprisal from everywhere including our own backyard. If you're scanning for likely threats at the time, their likelihood is going to be determined by the last terrorist attack, are you advocating that we change our scanning in reaction to threats or should we just effectively scan everyone like Israeli airlines have to do?

Of course given the crappy inspection process we have now, there's a lot of problems with having security theater,A friend of mine got on three flights going through security three times in two months with the same knife in his bag. Only the last checkpoint caught it, he forgot it was in there. The reality is that the list of people out to get us is small and as long as bombs don't make it on the plane the likelihood of other issues is small. Could 9/11 happen again? I don't think so, now that people understand what can happen when you let someone take over the plane they are much more willing to step up and settle the situation, one guy with a knife can't overpower 90 other people unless it's maybe a flight full of non-arse kicking grandmas.

Thanks for prodding on this, I was working off a weak memory and had to look it up, but it actually supports my argument more than I care to admit.

Obama did issue an executive order to close Guantanamo on his second day in office.

A key provision:

(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

Congress has to appropriate funds to move the detainees, house them somewhere, and ultimately properly close down Guantanamo. Congress decided against doing this, leaving Obama in a weak position.

He's a little article outlining roadblocks to closing Guantanamo.

It's true. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=5651802

"the physical strength and stamina to climb one of the toughest mountains on earth several times, not to mention the mental fitness, flexibility and willpower one needs in large quantities in order to do something like that."

And the corporate sponsors!

Think I'm joking? Children climb Mt. Everest, but not without a long list of corporate sponsers like Energizer and Mary Kay (have to look nice in the photos!). The elderly also climb Mt Everest.

Climbing Mount Everest isn't impressive anymore, As of 2008 over 4,000 people have climbed Mount Everest and it's become a significant tourist attraction for Nepal: "Climbers are a significant source of tourist revenue for Nepal, whose government also requires all prospective climbers to obtain an expensive permit, costing up to US $ 25,000 per person."

It's just another tourist attraction for thrill seekers. The reason that guy was able to pass on his seed probably had more to do with having money to burn buying $25,000 Mt Everest climbing permits then it had to do with his physical strength or stamina.

They ARE heroes. They know that they could die in the line of duty, and they do what has to be done anyway.

Then I would have to say the REAL heroes are construction workers. According to this site, the US had 673,146 officers in 2005. The number of line-of-duty deaths? 165. That's a rate of 0.245 deaths per 1000 officers.

Compare that to this news that the rate of US construction worker workplace deaths is between 6 and 7 per 1000 workers, around 25 times the workplace death rate of police officers, and the construction workers don't necessarily get paid well for the risk.

Yes, the police do an important job, and no, it's probably not easy. However, I think this hero worship we lay upon them is ridiculous. (FWIW, the climber is definitely no hero either).

If anyone cares...

CBS Feedback Form
http://www.cbs.com/info/user_services/fb_global_form.php

NBC Feedback Form
http://nbc.researchresults.com/?s=3

ABC Contact Form
http://abc.go.com/site/contact-us

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=2682730&page=1

They're doing Archimedes solar ray AGAIN? Aren't we up to three already (the original myth and two revisits)? Obviously I think it is fun that Obama will be on the show but frankly aside from that I really don't want to see that same tired Myth for a third time...

Perhaps they're reviving it in light of the fact an Archimedes ray was accidentally invented recently? http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/las-vegas-hotel-pool-sunlight-swimming-tourists/story?id=11739234

Their original conclusion is wrong. Theres even a building to prove it http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/las-vegas-hotel-knew-pool-death-ray-back/story?id=11760093

The building is massive of course, and the phenomena is described as a minor inconvenience but a dedicated building team could have made something at least 1/2 the size back in those days and many times as powerful since this is just accidental and not on purpose, and also not using windows. Something purpose made for it could be a lot smaller with a lot more punch.

Uh oh, another "non-profit" group must need money to supplement their jet's and expensive dinners.

That is a stupid argument. Imagine you see someone disemabarking from a private jet, wearing a suit that costs more than the salaries of you and I combined, just so that they can attend an expensive dinner in another city. Which is more likely?

1. They are a climate scientist (or member of a tree-hugging, non-profit group).
2. They are a mining executive.

Which side of this argument has the most financial interest in arguing either for or against limiting our use of Earth's resources? Let's face it, you don't get super rich by becoming a climate scientist.

It reminds me of when the three CEOs of the car industry all took private planes to lobby Washington for a taxpayer handout. But no, I am sure that you are right that it is the tree-huggers who are the ones trying to greedily screw us all for money.

For a moment there I thought that the so called mining executive was Al Gore. A big problem with politically charged issues such as this is that you often have a situation where the pot is calling the kettle black, and both the pot and kettle are right. Then you have the pot and kettle charging their political bases to keep in power.

It's clear that the earth can sustain only so much. The problem of rallying all the people of the earth to do something responsible is a tough one. Personally, I don't believe that it's likely. Anyone with a clear head should plan for the worst possibility while working for the best solution, but it's such a tattered mess right now that only an act short of brainwashing 6 billion people would be effective.

The real issue should be stated properly. Just how much can the earth handle before everything falls apart?

Uh oh, another "non-profit" group must need money to supplement their jet's and expensive dinners.

That is a stupid argument. Imagine you see someone disemabarking from a private jet, wearing a suit that costs more than the salaries of you and I combined, just so that they can attend an expensive dinner in another city. Which is more likely?

1. They are a climate scientist (or member of a tree-hugging, non-profit group).
2. They are a mining executive.

Which side of this argument has the most financial interest in arguing either for or against limiting our use of Earth's resources? Let's face it, you don't get super rich by becoming a climate scientist.

It reminds me of when the three CEOs of the car industry all took private planes to lobby Washington for a taxpayer handout. But no, I am sure that you are right that it is the tree-huggers who are the ones trying to greedily screw us all for money.

Studies say that Jenny McCarthy says that the MMR will give you the dreaded Autism. Andrew Wakefield told me so, and his patent for a competing vaccine has nothing to do with it

So which shot is "the autism shot" you could probably ask 10 moms and 5 would tell you "MMR", even though the whole thing is obvious fraud horseshit.

I have no idea why "information" is perpetuated so quickly but "rebuttal" is so slow.

Hardware mfgs won't go for this
Consumers won't care
There aren't enough people who _do_ care to make a difference

Some of this may be true, stark reality. But if that's the case, then I ask, what do we do instead?

A lot of us feel strongly that the rise of constrained, "walled garden" computing, especially in mobile devices (phones, iPad, etc.) is a Bad Thing(tm). These mobile devices, along with increasingly complex embedded systems, may well be the future of computing. These days, computing = access to information. Do you really, really want your information device to be nothing more than a puppet for someone else to control? We've all read the books and seen the movies - we know where this road ends. I don't want to go there.

Already, the corporate-owned and operated consolidated media is doing its best to spoon-feed everybody the daily ration of irrelevant crap or pre-digested "here's what to think" news stories. And due to the trend we're discussing, soon the only place we'll be able to get any information at all is with our fully-controlled, censored, happy happy joy joy goodcitizendevices.

But this gets worse, because once the corporations control everything, it's only one small step away from government abuse. Been paying attention to the trends lately? Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-law enforcement, but there must be balance. When all tech is locked down and we have no choices, it will be too late to wonder if we should have just allowed it to happen.

So, honestly, if this FSF effort isn't the answer, what is? Because as long as we want to remain a free people, we can't just stand by and watch, if not facilitate, as a select few take full control of the systems we rely on for our information.

It's dangerous for diabetics, pregnants

Current research seems to indicate a drink in moderation is not necessarily bad for pregnant women. Also, the majority of the alcohol does evaporate so we're really talking about minimum levels. For 99.999 percent of the population, its not a health risk. Besides, there are so many foods and medications which do include alcohol, a discussion of minimal levels is a complete misdirection.

In this case, we're talking about alcohol suspended in dough, which is in direct contact with an extremely high temperature pan. So we're talking about maybe 30%-40% retention of 1/4 cup. That's roughly 0.1 fluid ounces, assuming 40%, divided amongst eight pieces. Or roughly 0.0125 ouches of alcohol per piece of pie. And if the pie is provided several hours of cooling time it likely has even far less. You likely get more alcohol with your dose of medication.

Basically, if you are concerned about this level of alcohol, you never leave your home.