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Why does everyone assume that anything with the term plastic in it is non-degradable? Besides, it's not like doctors are allowed to just stick things in a person's body on a whim.

Take a step back from the knee-jerk, luddite reaction to technology and think for a second about what the article is talking about here: an emergency supply of blood that is easier to store, transport, and perhaps even acquire (cheaper than drawing blood?). Complications from a foreign substance in your body are pretty minor compared to dying from blood loss, and the kinds of places where transfusions are needed are not always well-suited to the storage of spare blood (like in a medic's fieldpack in 100+ degree heat in Falluja).

</rant>

It's likely they've thought of this and chosen their materials accordingly. Even if the body isn't able to dispose of the artificial hemoglobules itself, it's likely that they could be transfused out (or possibly simply bled out, since you noted that these probably don't denature and clot like platelets). Furthermore, adding stuff to the blood stream does not necessarily stop the body's natural blood production, and it's not like they're claiming their artificial blood is ready for use yet, anyway.

Actually, he already has one.

But I like the conspiracy theory!

Welcome to America. Here, we're getting ready to attack Milt Romney - a conservative Mormon - because his wife made a donation to Planned Parenthood when she was 24, which I think was in the 70s.

It was 1994. I strongly doubt she was 24 at the time. Shame on you for trying to muddy the waters even further.

This reminds me of something in the news in Houston. A teacher and her principal are in hot water after the teacher took some leave to appear on the TV show "The Bachelor". It seems like a vocal minority of parents didn't want their kids being taught by some floozy. It just seems like the complainants, once their initial complaints are met by "no harm, no foul", are picking through technicalities looking for any possible ammo.

This reminds me of something in the news in Houston. A teacher and her principal are in hot water after the teacher took some leave to appear on the TV show "The Bachelor". It seems like a vocal minority of parents didn't want their kids being taught by some floozy. It just seems like the complainants, once their initial complaints are met by "no harm, no foul", are picking through technicalities looking for any possible ammo.

Lawyers are servants, not masters? Have you met many servants? Most of them run the household. Masters decide that the bedroom should be clean and the sheets replaced every now and then. Servants are the ones that decide the bed needs to be made every five seconds. The master says "unless it's really important, hold my calls." Servants are the ones that decide the master's sister's house burning down isn't sufficiently important, and that it should be left to burn.

Lawyers may say that they're only following the letter of the law, but the fact of the matter is they have a lot of leeway in what cases they bring in front of other people. Suing a dry cleaner for 67 million dollars for losing a pair of pants may be within the letter of the law, but it is a fair example of lawyers run amock. Jack Thompson is fully within his legal rights to make the outlandish and unsupported claims that he has been, but that doesn't mean he should be doing so.

Linden Labs has sent out "Permit and Proceed" letters. Other companies have official policies of blind eyes. So there are legal options at hand. Why is it that some legal departments get this and spend most of their time defending their client's actual interests, and others just go crazy sending nastygrams to the 4-million-and-climbing pages that list the HD-DVD key?

Of course there are gray areas in "freedom of speech". For example, the United States has often equated giving money to a candidate as "speech". I personally disagree that the right to give arbitrary money to a candidate is equal to the right of free expression or even association, but it's certainly debatable. There's also the question of intent-- you may be free to say anything and not be locked up for the speech, but be locked up because the speech implied intent or guilt in another matter entirely. Depending on how silly and "thought-crime"esque other laws are, it may seem like it's speech itself that is being impinged.

Anyway, nothing is black and white, and especially not something as rich as speech.

In any case, in case this article leads anyone to any undue optimism, you can go read ABC news' editorial on the matter to bring you back down again (or to make your blood boil, depending on your temperament).

I guess you never heard the 911 call from the two kids, high on meth, stuck in a snow drift - they literally had no idea where they were while talking to the 911 caller.

Triangulation was not possible, as the battery ran out.

A few days later, road crews found their frozen bodies in a car stuck in a snow drift. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Primetime/story?id=54 9455&page=1

Yes, these things do happen.

How about this - mom/dad has a stroke, the 3 year old picks up the phone and hits the big red button that dials 911, but can't tell the operator her address, only her name, and her last name happens to be common, with dozens in the phone book - what is the 911 dispatcher to do? Roll the entire police/fire/EMS forces to ALL the addresses?

E911 requirements are hard, and telcos get no slack - they either provide the required service accurately, or pay tremendous fines and run the risk of losing the right to offer service in an area.

You're kidding right? Have a majority of people lost the filter in their head between fantasy and reality?

a.) She wasn't raped, in any way, shape, form, or fashion. End of story. To call it rape is just insane.

b.) "I don't see how the laws can help but extend to the virtual world" Clue - VIRTUAL means "NOT REAL" for all the unenlightened. It's a bunch of bits and bytes.

      -- As for things like online finance, businesses and the such, yes there are REAL world consequences for actions such as stealing money online from a bank, or scamming someone out of their product. HOWEVER... VIRTUAL products shouldn't matter worth a damn. Sorry, IT'S A GAME, it's not real. Yes, perhaps you invested your real time and energy into it, but ffs IT'S STILL A GAME damnit! I find it almost unbelieveable that seeing how law enforcement works in the real world (sometimes, sometimes it works against all logic...such as a judge wanting to sue for $67MIL for a pair of pants. http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/Story?id=3119381&page =1) you want their fingers deeper into the intarweb? If there's a problem with Second Life, or a user in it... GO TO THE DAMN GAMEMAKER and complain! Keep the courts out of something that has no real life consequences. They should have enough to do keeping people from killing each other in the name of their cause de' jour.

*contemplates* I can't believe I'm having to write this.

So MIT and the Boston area lost an internet connection but look at us here in the San Francisco Bay Area. Here are some URL from our TV news about this:
http://cbs5.com/topstories/local_story_122105617.h tml
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/index?section=local&id= 5255731#

We lost two freeway connections this weekend in the San Francisco Bay Area because of a gasoline tanker truck overturned and caught fire. A homeless guy with a burnt mattress is nothing compared to the entire freeway overpass burning an collapsing. See the videos and slide show from the TV news station websites.

First they imply that he "Made a violent video game". Then they show how upset, uh sorry "Shocked and appalled" his fellow students were after learning the dire news.

At Clements High School, student Jordan Schlafer is appalled and shocked to learn her school was used as a backdrop for a violent video game. She said, "If somebody can make a map like that of the whole school, I mean, it does kind of scare me a little bit, and make me wonder, you know, what else they could do."

Yes, indeed little missy, what else could he do?!

Then they deduce his purpose for doing so, no less than cold blooded Murder!! Plus they mix in the possibility that it was a practice ground for his own version of the Virginia Tech massacre.

"It was the exact replication of the campus," said Fort Bend ISD spokesperson Mary Ann Simpson. "There were players in the game that were armed and the purpose of the game was to shoot and kill."

What made the situation even worse is that the video game was discovered by a fellow student days after the Virginia Tech shootings. School officials immediately removed the teen from school, placing him in an alternative education campus. They called the situation a 'terroristic threat.'

If this kid had anything in his history I bet dollars to donuts the fear mongers at ABC13 would be portraying it in the worst light possible.

We find nothing but innuendo though. I think the kid is exactly what most people here are thinking. A computer geek who wanted to learn map making for Counter Strike and thought doing one of his school would be cool.

As the original link is slashdotted, here is a couple more for the same story

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro /4766843.html
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=local&id =5263782

I'd scream at the ridiculousness of it all, but, then I'd probably be arrested for practising some sort of arcane terrorist warcry.

Are you bored by legal technicalities? Would you rather be watching a 90 mph police car chase that ends in a cataclysmic crash?? Well the SCOTUS has delivered just what you want in their other big decision today: SCOTT v. HARRIS.

Yes, seriously here is the 93MB RealPlayer video: http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/video/scott _v_harris.rmvb There are actually two videos of the chase back to back--the second one is better. Choice quote: "Let me have him 78, my car is already tore up!"

(I guess it is ironic that RealVideo format is probably heavily protected by patents.)

If you want the boring legal details of the case they are here: http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/06pdf/05-16 31.pdf

And here's a news story about it: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=310057 5

A little refresher on evolution: As far as natural selection is concerned, health after age 50-60 is essentially unimportant.

Sounds like someone else needs a little refresher on evolution too. The presence of people who have a few decades of extra life experience to impart and who can take care of the grandchildren while mom and dad are out hunting is not exactly insignificant to the survival of a tribe.

Or Meet the Robinsons.

(hint: look at the logo.)

The games industry didn't kill anyone. The music industry didn't kill anyone. The gun manufacturers didn't kill anyone.

You wanna know who killed these people? Some crazy loner named Cho. End of fucking list.

I'm so damned fucking tired of people wanting to take away my stuff because someone else is fucked in the head. Hear me, Dr. Phil? Damned Fucking tired.

Hear about that quintuple murder of kids 10 and under in Quincy, Illinois this week? With gasoline? Where's the fucking gun, facist pigs? Where's the fucking gun?

Know what yesterday was? It's the twelfth anniversary of the "Oklahoma City Bombing", which I like to refer to as the "Murrah Building Massacre". Where's the fucking gun? That's right, there's no gun. It was fertilizer mixed with either diesel or fuel oil. Where's the fucking gun? Where's Dr. Phil and the Democrats wanting to take fertilizer and motor fuels away?

Don't give me this "only criminals have use for guns" bullshit. You're more likely to die from falling than from homicide with a gun in the US. Falling. Sixty million people in the United States own guns, for a total of around 200 million units. Sixty fucking million. How about some handrail laws, dipshit press-whoring politicians? You'll save more lives with handrails, and banning rock climbing, and banning old people from walking across tiled floors. Why not take those freedoms away, too? Fucking facist pigs!

The problem is not with the choice of weapon. The problem is the mentally broken piece of shit being allowed to access large groups of unarmed people. The police stopped an early victim's boyfriend on the highway and was busy questioning him while this malfunctioning piece of meat Cho was delivering a video manifesto and figuring out where to kill more people.

Do you know how to handle a double homicide on a college campus? You lock the entire fucking campus down and send in a Tactical Unit (SWAT) to clear every building. You don't wait around for thirty more people to die then blame everyone but the killer and the authorities.

Somebody fucked up. It wasn't Valve, Microsoft, Id, Sony, Nintendo, EA, or Sega. It wasn't Judas Priest, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Motorhead, or Ice T. It was Cho, and probably the school, the cops, the counselors he saw, the mental hospital he went to that let him go, and every mental health professional and court that deemed him to be dangerous yet didn't report it to the authorities responsible for the gun control laws already in place. The guy bought his Glock 19 pistol about five weeks ago. He was determined to be mentally ill and an imminent danger to himself in 2005 and had an imaginary girlfriend. He'd been repeatedly accused of stalking by more than one alleged victim.

The killer passed a background check that's already in place, even though there are numerous reason he should not have. Why is it that games, guns, music, or anything else are to blame? How will new laws which won't be implemented properly do what current improperly implemented laws couldn't if they were implemented properly?

The only way to stop people from killing one another is to stop the people who would do it from doing it. You don't need a gun to kill a person or even to kill hundreds. All you need is, apparently, the authorities to ignore years of dangerous mental problems.

He also wouldn't have been able to buy the guns in the first place, which he did legally.

The man's right. The internet is where I find out about this kind of stuff.

So you're upset that people call him a liar without support, but then find support lies to seem petty? And, that wasn't all I came up with. That list accounted for a good deal of my post and was but a drop in the bucket. If you aren't aware of the many blatant lies and don't care to go read the wealth of documented lists, then I guess your head can stay in the sand.

Well, first, this doesn't upset me. Why should it?

Maybe it is positional bias, but I just didn't see the examples that you gave as compelling evidence of dishonesty. There are a lot of ways to interpret "Stay the course", for example. You can stay the course by not giving up and withdrawing from Iraq, but at the same time your tactics and strategies on the ground in Iraq can change. In context, I think it is clear that this was what the President was saying. It just seems juvenile to me to try to attribute this to dishonesty. Similarly, it seems juvenile to treat the President's comments at the campaign fundraiser as a direct quote. He was giving his interpretation of what it meant to vote against the bill. You are free to disagree with his interpretation, but that doesn't make it a lie. The President's list of disrupted plots was in fact a list of terrorist plots that had in fact been disrupted (you were a little off on one of the 3 plots, btw). You can disagree on what disrupted the plots, but that doesn't make it a lie.

I could have GWB standing in front of you saying that the moon is made of green cheese and you would deny that he lied.

I'm sorry you feel that way.

It is amazing how that worked out. Nevermind that the Deulfer and ISG reports indicate that Saddam had little to no interest in attacking the US - he was preoccupied primarily with Iran.

Can you clarify which part of the report you are referring to? The Duelfer report (which is the same thing as the ISG report, by the way) didn't conclude anything like what you describe, and that wasn't the focus of the report anyway.

Meanwhile we have North Korea and Iran openly threatening the US without any repercussions.

What do you mean without repercussions? Both of these nations have face significant international opposition and sanctions for their actions.

And when the Security Council does not agree with the US's interpretation of previous resolutions and refuses to unambiguously authorize the use of force, the US is empowered to act for the full Security Council?

The Security Council unambiguously authorized the used of force in 678, and reaffirmed that authorization over a dozen times between 1991 and 2003. Like I said before, there are several precedents from the Security Council on how they terminate an authorization to use force, none of which apply to 678.

Article 39 of the UN Charter says that, "[t]he Security Council shall determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression and shall make recommendations, or decide what measures shall be taken in accordance with Articles 41 and 42, to maintain or restore international peace and security."

The Security Council did determine such a threat in Iraq and it's WMD programs- 17 times. The authorization to use military force was applied multiple times throughout the 1990s based on this threat.

Your choice of wording is intentionally misleading (and factually inaccurate). The UN explicitly gave authorization for member nations to work with the government of Kuwait to push Iraq back to their previous borders.

How am I trying to mislead? I quoted directly from Resolution 678. The UN explicitly gave the authorization for two things:

1. Implementing 660 and all subsequent rele

Bullshit; I can't see my neighbor's power bill.

Have you ever tried? Where I live, the power company is required to disclose this to anyone who asks. It's a very common practice if you are buying a house (or even looking for an apartment to rent) to call the utility company and get the current occupant's bills, as a way to estimate what your own utility costs will be.

Don't believe me? Just ask Al Gore.

• An Iron Curtain is Descending on US
  
  
• Cheney: Water torture is OK
  
  
• Bush administration says detainee shouldn't be able to tell attorney how he was tortured in secret CIA prison
  
  
• The United States is now prosecuting suspected terrorists on the basis of their intentions, not just their actions
  
  
• Man arrested for saying "I think your policies in Iraq are reprehensible"
  
  
• Civil Liberties Advocates' Worst Fears Realized with Patriot Act Scandal
  
  
• Activist, anti-Bush lawyer "falls to death at hotel
  
  
• Abuse and Torture by U.S. troops
  
  
• plenty more, regretfully...
  
  

And he'll come out of his mountain top home that consumes 20 times the energy of an average U.S. home and fly around the world in jet airplanes (spewing forth untold amounts of CO2 into the upper atmosphere) to promulgate his prophecy.

The bigger the mouth, the bigger the hypocrite.

It benefits the chamber of commerce. More daylight after normal 9-5 working hours means more people will go out shopping. The last time this was tried (in 1986 or so), the golf industry made an extra $200 million in income.

Trying to equate race with nationality is an incredibly misleading argument and shows that you really have no freaking clue what's going on.

What you are trying to argue is that if they show a California ID they get charges $x, if they show a ID from some other state they get charged some price $y.

And THIS DOES HAPPEN. Ever go to Disneyland? I guess not, but still. If I show a Driver's License registered for San Luis Obispo (93405, where I currently live) that's considered "Southern California" and I will get a discount. If I show a driver's license for Cupertino (95014, where I used to live---also in California, and happens to be the HQ of Apple) that's considered "Not Southern California" and I get charged another higher rate. Many of the Theme Parks in Southern California do this. It is not illegal.

Don't believe me, look at it here: http://disneyland.disney.go.com/disneyland/en_US/r eserve/ticketListing?name=TicketListingPage#

This is yet another case or Europeans really having no clue what the American market is like, making egregious assumptions and then trying to link their argument with American racism---something which they rarely have more then the vaguest concept of.

• An Iron Curtain is Descending on US
  
  
• Cheney: Water torture is OK
  
  
• Bush administration says detainee shouldn't be able to tell attorney how he was tortured in secret CIA prison
  
  
• The United States is now prosecuting suspected terrorists on the basis of their intentions, not just their actions
  
  
• Man arrested for saying "I think your policies in Iraq are reprehensible"
  
  
• Letter to the editor prompts visit from Secret Service
  
  
• Activist, anti-Bush lawyer "falls to death at hotel
  
  
• Abuse and Torture by U.S. troops
  
  
• plenty more, regretfully...
  
  

The news here is not that corn is a bad way to make ethanol. Everybody who isn't in the pocket of agribusiness knows that. The news here is that a true blue bushie (or should I say true red bushie? how did Republicans become red?) has reached this conclusion. Which is going to upset a lot of people. Which means they're up to something. What? Is Bush going to invade Iowa?

" David Bransby, professor of energy crops at Auburn University, is an expert on switch grass, which President Bush mentioned in his State of the Union address. Bransby says switch grass is cheap to grow and provides a high yield crop that can make a lot of ethanol for a low cost."

Switchgrass: The Super Plant Savior?
President Touts Alternative Fuel Ingredient, But When Will It Be Ready?
By ADRIENNE MAND LEWIN

Feb. 1, 2006 -- It grows throughout the Great Plains and parts of the South, can be used to make ethanol -- an efficient and environmentally friendly fuel for cars -- and it has the potential to reduce the nation's dependence on oil.

Switchgrass is the perennial wonder plant touted by President Bush in Tuesday's State of the Union address and in his remarks made today in Nashville, Tenn., where he joked that he could have a new career in farming. "All of a sudden, you know, you may be in the energy business," Bush said. "You know, by being able to grow grass on the ranch and have it harvested and converted into energy. And that's what's close to happening." ... ...
Ethanol as a fuel is nothing new. Dan Sperling, a professor at the University of California at Davis and director of its Institute of Transportation Studies, noted that even early Model T Fords used ethanol, and it's an ingredient in beer and wine.

Most ethanol produced in America is made from corn -- a less-efficient material than switchgrass -- but corn producers are supported by a large lobby and huge government subsidies. There is no similar lobby or investment for grass or wood.

"When you make ethanol from corn, for every gallon of fuel you get, you put in about seven-tenths of a gallon of fossil energy, oil or natural gas," he said. "That's only a small improvement in terms of greenhouse gases."

On the other hand, he said, "ethanol from cellulose [like switchgrass] is a great energy strategy because for every gallon of ethanol, a tiny amount of fossil material [is used.] There's a dramatic reduction in greenhouse gases, so from an energy perspective it's far superior." ... ...
For consumers, switching to ethanol would cost only about $100 per car. Kammen said all it takes are some new hoses and a new gas cap. "This is actually a switch we could make very easily and very quickly," he said.

Kammen is working to get an initiative on California's November ballot requiring that all new cars sold in the state be flex-fuel ready within five years. According to UC Berkeley, in 2004, ethanol-blended gasoline accounted for just 2 percent of all fuel sold in the United States, though nearly 5 million vehicles are already equipped.

"Converting to fuel ethanol will not require a big change in the economy," Kammen said. "We are already ethanol ready. If ethanol were available on the supply side, the demand is there."

You didn't hear these kind of excuses when the telegraph was the big communications network - it went to every town. And you didn't hear it when rail travel became prevalent - those tracks went everywhere, and if a mountain needed blasting to make way, the mountain got blasted. You can claim the Chinese worked like slaves to lay track - which may be true, but there is no shortage of cheap foreign labor in the US today - and they could be laying fiber (in fact, a lot of them are - just not enough).

The problem, as usual, is the self-serving traitorous bastards running Washington (the White House *and* congress - especially congress). When WW I started up, the US needed planes. Did they let the Wright Brothers push them around because they had some patent? No. They were like "look, guys, we need planes for the war, and you can't make them fast enough, so were throwing out your patent."

What happens now when we need equipment for the war? The multinational corporation making hummers whines "but we've got a contract - we make hummers and that's what we're gonna make." So what happens? We buy hummers that get our soldiers killed instead of the anti-road-bomb armored equipment we really need. (check this out). What's that about? Some greedy frackin senators with their palms greased, that's what!

No more excuses. Build the infrastructure we need, make the equipment we need, and quick dicking around with the greedy corporations.

When she was DNA tested to receive welfare, the DNA indicated that her children weren't hers - but the mother would've been someone with similar DNA *like a brother* of hers.

Somehow you took that to mean that she had hermaphroditism, which would have made her infertile. That's pretty illogical - how the hell does a person have male eggs? And how would they think that her kids had been fathered by two males? They didn't.

A more accurate summary of the show is here.

Poll: More Republicans Satisfied With Sex Lives Than Democrats

Your point is refuted.

Primetime Live Poll: More Republicans Satisfied With Sex Lives Than Democrats

New 'Primetime Live' Sex Survey Reveals That More Republicans (56 Percent) Are Very Satisfied With Their Sex Lives Than Democrats (47 Percent)

The dogs in N. Ireland must have been trained by the same people that trained Lucky and Flo in this 2006 story.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=1944531& page=1

The look on the dogs faces are saying to me: "What? Sniff out pirated media? That's so 2006."

Exactly. Perhaps there it is the case that there's no treatment yet. You can become an advocate for your particular cause, like Augusto and Michaela Odone, whose son Lorenzo was diagnosed with adrenoleukodystrophy, or Harvard stem cell researcher Douglas Melton, who redirected the focus of his laboratory after his son was diagnosed with diabetes. I think we will find that once personalized medicine makes advocacy for biomedical research a selfish act, it will become much more widespread and effective. As the nytimes article demonstrates, you don't need to be a scientist, celebrity, or wealthy donor to be an effective advocate for something.

Someone who commits a real crime gets off scott free due to illness, whereas,
on the same day,
in the same state,
this http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=politics& id=5122773 dying woman is loses her appeal,
and is sent to prison for smoking dope.

>I can tell I'm dealing with a rational person here. No, you don't know anything about the >science, but you know the TRUTH.

Who said I know nothing about science? The one thing I know, with out a doubt about science is nothing is closed for debate...except this. Wonder why?

>The facts, however, differ. There is a direct link to man's activity, natural effects are not >large enough to produce the observed changes, and the historical record indicates that we are not >due for a "cycle" of warming that looks anything like what we are experiencing.

What "link" are you referring too? The fact is, CO2 in our atmosphere actually would make it cooler, not warmer. Again, historical records only "indicate" a very small slice of time, not enough to base a conclusion, unless you have other motives.

>I already indicated in detail why you were wrong, but you didn't read the links.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=29387 62&page=1
http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?idartic le=8342

There is you some light reading.

>No, you don't. Your whole post is entirely free of scientific content.

Other than 2 links to your propaganda sites, what science have you quoted?

>This is false. They are not in the same field, they often don't even work in the same department, >and most importantly, prediction of the climate is totally different from prediction of the >weather for reasons I already gave, which you ignored.

Not ignored, disputed. Let's look at the definition of Climatology, shall we?
Climatology - The meteorological study of climates and their phenomena.
Meteorology - The science that deals with the phenomena of the atmosphere, especially weather and weather conditions.
If you can get your head out of Algore's butt long enough to read this, you will see that the definitions prove my point. Climatology even mentions Meteorology in it's definition.

>>You and your crowd wants to upset the world economy on less than 50 years of studies.
>Don't tell me what me or "my crowd" thinks. And I note that you are as ignorant of the economics >of climate change as you are of the science.

I noticed that you just called me "ignorant" but did nothing to prove me wrong. Please, a debate, not name calling.

>>This world is, some say, billions of years old, we study it for less than 50 years and we know >>what is going on???
>So that's it, your big argument, the basis of debate? "I don't believe that science works, >therefore it's wrong." Great. Good argument there.

Look, my argument has more substance and validity than anything you have said. You are just following a washed up senator that couldn't even carry his own state in his bid for President.
Algore even was quoted that his movie was "not factual, but drew all the right conclusions." Hey, but thank God he invented the internet so we can have this conversation.

>>Then the scientist realize that if there is no problem, there is no money...hence, there will >>always be a problem as long as there is a grant to pay for the study of it.
>And your second big argument is a global conspiracy theory. No, what happens in reality is that >if somebody publishes dodgy work they get torn apart by the scientific community and nobody ever >cites their work again.

You are right, if someone disagrees with your position, the chicken little crowd brands them a heretic. This boils down to, if you tell a lie long and loud enough, people will start to believe it.

>>I am not worried about the polar ice caps melting. This will pass.
>Sure, because it's all "natural", and not just "natural" but a "natural cycle" which will soon >reverse itself, and therefore you don't have to worry a

Are we going to be seing Larry, Eric and Sergey managing a Dairy Queen anytime soon?

Read this.

Whether or not this is true I have no idea but here is a link from ABC from back in 2005 which says the exact same thing.

Conspiracy? You decide.

this statement makes no sense to me. Please help me understand.

Short test to measure basic multiplication, division, and single factor Algebraic evaluation, and real world applications.

2545*6464=

5485495*373873=

373848/24=

7824747/13=

8x+5=69 Solve for X

27X=37X +14 Solve for X

In a rectangular room 12 feet by 20, how much carpet is required to cover the floor?

If the ceilings in this room are 9 feet high, and one can of paint covers 100 square feet, how much paint would be required to cover all four walls?

This is a simple example of a test. First thing to note: Not a single one of these can be solved without knowing one's times tables. If a student can not answer these questions, perhaps a lack of knowledge of basic time tables is the problem.

Second thing to note: This test is quite capable of determining whether or not the tested subject understands the principles of Multiplication and division, and basic single factor algebra. If you disagree, please explain.

"Well, more tests wouldn't help. "

It would if action was taken based on those tests. There is no way in hell this student has passed social studies, english. history, geography, none of it. How did he pass through to the twelve grade?

"Also, finding the worst possible student and dragging them up as an example of how the system works is a greater distraction from the problem than a useful critique."

I see it as an extreme example of the problem. If a child this ignorant can be passed through school, how many other children with a little more knowledge, but not enough, have passed through?

"f he wanted to show the system failing, he should be in the intercity schools with drug and discipline problems." He did. He showed children in classrooms acting like animals. Discipline in one of the big problems in schools, and the fix is to discipline both the student and the parent. He also showed an Oakland Ca charter school working on far less money successfully teaching children. Here is the online version

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Stossel/story?id=150033 8

"here is a simple fix, private school vouchers."

You are preaching to the choir on that one.

"They will not be allowed to turn away any applicants, they will not be allowed to expel any students unless approved by the public school board"

Won't need to. Being a private school they can have thier own rules, with no need to "expell" students. Break the rules, violate the contract, no problem.

"hey will be required to transport every student from their homes to school, if the student wishes. "

Perhaps. Some rules need to be waived. As long as the parents are in agreement with the method for transportation, that is no problem for me. Public transit works sometimes.

"The only problem with public schools is that they are politicized. '

Agreed.

"This lead to the requirement that students that do not want to be there are required to be there."

I disagree. I don't really give a crap if the student wants to be there, it is the parents requirement to get them there, and insure they behave. Schools should have enforcement capabilities for insuring this.

"they'd be able to expel the 10% of students that are unteachable, and hold back the people like you mention that need to repeat a grade or learn at a different pace."

NoO student is unteachable, they simply need to be motivated, and Holding students back should be MANDATORY. This would also help with those ten$. Shame will help a 12 year old to learn when 8 yer olds are passing them by.

"I want monitoring to enabl

Truth to be told, I don't think it's such a stretch to say that people who are contributing a disproportionate amount to pollution are trying to kill me. They are actively destroying the resources I need to survive, after all. Am I, while I'm trying to defend myself against these indirect murderers, pushing a socialist agenda?

So that means if you kill Al Gore who uses far more resources than you, it's justifiable self defense? What about all those Hollwood celebs with their private jets and extravagant lifestyles? Or is it just the Republican voting upper middle class in their SUVs who count?

I wouldn't exactly call it socialist, since democratic socialists had a much more subtle, nuanced ideology than this, but it's definitely a envy driven agenda. Actually, it reminds me of Marxism since it is a mixture of the politics of envy, a belief that free societies are a concealed dictatorship, and that they contain the seeds of their own demise due to unsustainability. In fact, the main flaws in Marxism were not adequately explaining why free societies were unsustainable. Environmentalism, I suspect, gives people who want to believe that a better reason than the orginal Marxist idea that free societies would eventually collapse as the rate of profit declined and be replaced with dictatorships of the proletariat.

But as a liberal, it seems that if you want to take away other people's freedom, you need to have evidence that they are harming you in a much more direct way than this.

And if you want to move towards a society where the Golden Rule matters less, remember that the Republican voting SUV drivers probably outnumber people like you. They are better organised too. There's a fair chance that you'll be the unpopular minority that ends up losing rights, not them.

Most all the political solutions (kyoto) have included their policies that were once rejected. And yes, most of hollywoods considers itself liberal. They do control a good part of the distribution proces.

Instant Kyoto compliance to help offset Al Gores inconvenient electric bill.

But when every thing is out there and all the objections and discrediting revolves around blasphemy because the religion says otherwise, I will celibrate that this study was corect. And yes, I did just liken the global wamring science to a religion. It has become one for some people. I'm not saying you, but some people.

You mean like this or this?

LOS ANGELES Feb 22, 2007 (AP)-- A man who allegedly uploaded a copy of the film "Flushed Away" onto the Internet after getting a copy from an Oscar voter faces a felony charge.

Salvador Nunez Jr., 27, was charged with copyright infringement and faces up to three years in prison if convicted. He was scheduled to appear in court March 1.

Prosecutors said he obtained a copy of the movie after it was sent in advance to his sister, an Oscar voter and member of The International Animated Film Society.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences received a tip in early January that someone put "Flushed Away" on the Internet, and a digital watermark identified it as an Academy screener film.

When interviewed by FBI agents, Nunez acknowledged he uploaded "Flushed Away" and the Oscar-nominated film "Happy Feet" onto the Internet, court documents said. However, investigators only found a copy of "Flushed Away" in his computer hard drive.

It wasn't immediately known whether Nunez has retained an attorney.

Man Charged With Uploading Movie to Web

There are many points of interest here, but most significantly the feds decision to prosecute the uploader on the felony charge. That would be a first and a major change in policy.

No, we pretty much have the same rule as you do but since it's rarely enforced, people like Kevin Trudeau can continue to peddle crap which claims to 'cure' dieting even though by claiming such, he is required to submit his products for testing to verify their claims. Since you're not from the U.S., any product which claims to cure an affliction must be tested by the FDA to prove it's claims. If, however, you say that the product helps to relieve the symptoms of X, then it's not subject to medical scrutiny. See this FDA page on how things are supposed to work.

Which he hasn't and never will. The only time the FTC stepped in on his lame ass was when he sold the products themselves. The FTC shut him down based on his infomercials so he adjusted his snakeoil salesmanship to only sell the books which tell you what products to buy. Since his books are protected Free Speech, PROFIT!

See this link and this link for what a con artist this guy is and how he's endangering peoples lives with his lies as well an analysis by a doctor about his claims.

ESPN may be a high profile site, but that doesn't mean all their pages are worth advertising on.

They've got millions of pages of garbage like this:

http://search.espn.go.com/keyword/search?src=bowlf ull&page=sponsored&searchString=Detroit+flights

For some reason, Google actually indexes this crap, and it ranks fairly well.

...

I didn't bother to check their site, but I'll take you at your word. The article linked to in the summary (from Networkworld, whoever the hell they are) said they were a "law firm," and claimed to be quoting an Associated Press story. The Miami Herald calls them a "Miami education consulting firm." ESPN agrees, as do most of the other sites I just checked. Of course, most of those are just re-publishing the AP story, without checking it for accuracy.

I guess the lesson here is don't take everything you read as gospel, regardless of whether you read it on Wikipedia, or CNN, or in your local newspaper. Check out the facts, cause they probably didn't bother.

There might also be another explanation for the "crazy guy" phenomenon. According to many articles, half of mankind is infected by a parasite, Toxoplasma, that is known to radically alter the behavior of rats. It's also suspected of creating schizophrenia-like symptoms in some human subjects who are either more sensitive or highly infected.

So it's entirely possible that some cases of "unruly teen" behavior might be linked to a parasitic infection. A blood test is $30 and the cure is a couple of cheap pills. Next time I have an episode of road rage, I'm getting tested.

Read up about it. It is both fascinating and disturbing. And it could save someone you know.

I'm shutting down our lab mail server and migrating a large userbase to central university mail services because of all the problems we're experiencing with supporting an internal mail server. Everything from excessive spam (and it's well over 90% of all incoming connections), people using email as for storing files (as if it were a home directory), and recent rulings demanding that IT offices track email and IMs.

I worked out how much staff time we spend maintaining and supporting our mail server and was shocked. For a service that's commoditized and available for free from any number of vendors (never mind our uni's central IT service we're already paying for), and I worked out that last year we had spent ~100 hrs/yr of staff time. Looking back I realized that in years previous we had spent far less on a per year basis. IOW: staff consumption on mail service was growing while prices for commodity email service was plummeting (all the way down to near free).

Dumping email support is the only rational solution.

Where will this go? I think email (as in RFC822, etc) is doomed. The protocol is broken. It has no safeguards to confirm the legitimacy of the sender or recipient, no mechanism to secure the communication during transmission (like a real envelope), and as a result the protocol begs to be exploited by Internet fucktards. Which is exactly what's happening. Time to toss SMTP and start from scratch.

Maybe this will explain some of the many mysterious hum phenomena.

Actually endurance seems to improve up to age 30 or so, and really only starts declining, in regular athletes, until after age 45. This paper seems to indicate that as they get older, athletes tend to switch from shorter, more intensive races to longer, endurance-limited ones. Triathon experts write one should not attemps ironman too young, but work up to it.

Male runners seem to be able to keep running for very long distances until after 70. There is the famous case of John A. Kelly who ran the Boston marathon until he was 84. He had won this race at age 35 and 37.