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Virgin airlines recently announced they're requiring people to remove certain batteries from laptops before boarding the plane.

This was mentioned last night, Monday, on the debut of the third season of Wife Swap. Funny, how many of us are married and we watch other people's wives? I can't believe they live their lives this way (but I'm not judging). The couple last night on the show made it seem fairly ridiculous with their 'pie-ratittudes'. Is this new trend of the wanting to sail the seven seas and take bounty by force all due to the Pirates of the Caribbean movies?

Oil still costs about $12:bbl to extract from the ground, and deliver to the refinery as it did in 2001. It still costs the same to refine it to gas and deliver it to your pump. But oil costs about $75 now, not $25. That means that we're not looking at just a tripling of price in 5 years, but rather almost five times the profit. While the rest of the country's economy, except for these energy corporations and banks, is stagnant or shrinking.

When the biggest corporations are having the best years of their lives at the expense of the people having some of their worst years, we should be hearing about it. We should be hearing about it even more. Speaking of hearings, when Congress has hearings on the subject, they should put these oil corporation tycoons under oath, but they don't. The CEO of Exxon/Mobil who was given the photo op for lying to the Senate was then given a $400 million bonus when he retired.

Oh yeah, people talk about that, especially when they get laid off. In a decent country, people would be talking about how those abuses led to the American oil/gas cartel getting broken up and reined in.

there aren't REAL ghosts/fairy princesses/vampires/PIRATES

I beg to disagree:

fairy princesses: You've obviously never seen a gay pride parade or been to New Orleans at Mardi Gras.

vampires: Sure there is

Pirates: See here.

Ghosts: (whoops, I thought you said goats.)

You mean like the 2006 Moscow market bombing or the 2006 Badarmude bus explosion?
Just because you're uninformed and choose to have prejudices based on your pitiful lack of knowledge doesn't mean everyone else should start hating on "brown people" because they're "all alike" and are therefore summarily guilty.

How could this story run with no comments mentioning Bingbong and Doug Glanville ?

http://espn.go.com/mlb/columns/stark_jayson/120128 3.html

Slashdot was all over this when it happened:

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/05/19/213622 1

On that note, I find it quite interesting that PETA draws so much more ire than some of the most awful corporations out there

Here's another article: http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=1297922&p age=1

Heated oceans are not the only component of a hurricane.

Warm water (a by-product of global warming) is only one of the components. This summer, I spoke with a local in Myrtle Beach, SC. He surfs in the winter (not sure how good the waves are) after the tourists go home. He said in the 40 years or so since he has lived there that this is the warmest the water has stayed during the winter (2005-2006). He gave a specific water temperature (I don't remember what) so this isn't a wild guess, it's hard numbers.

Record number of hurricanes or no, temperatures are staying warmer longer in many areas. This includes areas that this is a bad thing. It even includes areas that this isn't a bad thing in terms of a threat to humanity, but a great loss of an icon. We even have signs of a species going extinct from the heat. Not to be left out of the party, even humans are at risk.

I just wonder how much more climate-related disasters are needed before people stop and admit that there is a very strongly correlated statistical smoking gun that humans just _might_ be the central cause.

I call shenanigans all over that. It's not some vast conspiracy of SUV-loving, gas guzzling eco-terrorists that keeps things as they are

Could be. I'd really like to see the Times give every detail about this because otherwise, it really does look like somebody over-reaching their national boundaries to boss other sovereign nations around. However, it really does look like that's what happened, although I'd like to think it really was for a more benign reason:

ABC News: Times Blocks Article to U.K. Web Readers

Big oil: "Lets send in the troops to put an end to the cheap Iranian oil pumping. Cheap oil is not good for business at all, and it does not play nicely with our made up 'peak oil' propaganda."

Saddam was selling oil way to cheap, so we didn't like him. Hugo Chavez is trying to sell oil cheap, so we don't like him either.

Artificial scarcity is the name of the game. Monster profits will follow.

And it ain't just books! My kids (4, 4, and 3) have gone solar-system crazy over the last couple months, especially my youngest. He's been singing the names of the 9 planets as he goes to sleep each night, and their favorite show just had an episode about the nine of them.

Tonight, as I was hanging a glow-in-the-dark solar system in the boys' room, I broke the news. Pluto was now a Minor Planet, which I spun as being like a kid amongst grown-ups. That hit home somewhat for them, but even now, Little Guy is sitting across the room telling me, "but Daddy, Pluto is a planet!"

Thanks, astro-nerds.

... how Mickey is taking the news?

I heartily agree - would you go and be a PM at a cell phone company? Awesome.

BTW, one of the items on your list, the GPS phone locator service, is offered by Disney Mobile.

Yes, but what if a astronomic pluton would crash into earth, how would the geologists describe this then? Although I guess when a astronomic pluton hits the earth, the poets won't have to spend any meter on parking meters anymore, the physchologists won't get depressed about meteorologic depressions anymore, and, most fortunate, we're finally saved from Pluto

Switchgrass: The Super Plant Savior?
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."

Close, but how close? Bush's goal is to increase research into the production of ethanol using such elements as grass and wood chips, which could make it a cost-effective energy source by 2012. The White House says ethanol could potentially amount to 30 percent of the nation's current fuel use.

But some who work in the industry say the research is already well under way, and what's really needed is a commercial plant to convert switchgrass to ethanol on a large scale.

David Bransby, a professor at Auburn University in Auburn, Ala., supervises research into ways to optimize switchgrass production. He told ABC News that researchers know how to grow, plant, harvest and deliver switchgrass, but now they need a market for it. And the biggest barrier to that is government policy.

Bransby said the Department of Energy will only fund a pilot project to produce energy using switchgrass, about 10 to 15 tons a day. There are no plans for commercial plants that could develop technology to convert switchgrass into ethanol on a large scale.

Craig Stevens, a spokesman for the Department of Energy, told ABC News that the government wants to make sure the projects are viable on a small scale before expanding. "We need to walk before we can run," Stevens said, "and we need to make sure these technologies work."

An Old Process

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."

"We've known this for a long time," Sperling said. "Why has nothing happened? Part of it is we do need more R and D [research and development], but I think what we really need is a commitment on the indus

Often in managed forests, where, as you triumphantly declare: trees are "specifically grown to supply paper", the trees that have been planted are not indigenous to the region. This endangers native plant and animal species, such as in Chile.

On Wednesday, George Naccara, security director for the Transportation Security Administration for Massachusetts' airport, had specifically denied she was carrying a screwdriver or any liquids such as Vaseline.

On Thursday, Gail Marcinkiewicz, spokeswoman for the FBI in Boston, confirmed on Thursday that Mayo, a U.S. citizen, was carrying banned items in her carry-on bag, including a screwdriver, an unspecified number of cigarette lighters and matches.

Taylor dismissed a separate claim by the ACLU over data-mining of phone records by the NSA. She said not enough had been publicly revealed about that program to support the claim and further litigation could jeopardize state secrets.

You aren't paranoid if they really are out to get you...or your stuff:
TSA Under Fire for Rising Theft by Baggage Screeners

"It's a huge security threat," said aviation industry consultant Michael Boyd. "If we've got the kind of people who would steal things out of bags, we're not sure if we have people on the job who will put things into bags. And obviously we don't have enough scrutiny of the bags once they're checked. It's huge."

"the fact is, education is far worse in the USA then in alot of other countries (and certainly compared by European standards)."

and

"But hey, don't believe me; go watch 'stupid in america' ( http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Stossel/story?id=150033 8 [go.com] ) and hear it from a USA compatriot. ;-)"

It's about the education, I don't say anything about fundamentalism here.

Maybe you were mistaken with 'TFA'; this was a reference about *THIS* FA (on slashdot), obviously. BOTH things contribute to the poor performance of science in the USA, however.

No surprise there!

Though we're constantly being called european elitists and our education 'snobbery', the fact is, education is far worse in the USA then in alot of other countries (and certainly compared by European standards).

But hey, don't believe me; go watch 'stupid in america' ( http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Stossel/story?id=150033 8 ) and hear it from a USA compatriot. ;-)

The reasons are many, but basically come down to this: the schoolsystem and education-mechanism sucks, and, as TFA says, science and knowledge as a whole gets corrupted by christian fundamentalism (like Muslim fundamentalism does in some near-east countries) and politics.

No surprise, then, that more then 10% of the american populace can't find their own country on a worldmap...and it's not like it's a *small* country.

Christian fundamentalism and the 'politically correct' mentality (often also influenced by the same bible-driven nonsense) will see to it that the USA keeps losing ground in matters of education, science, and eventually in technology. The only thing keeping this from happening already, is the sheer amount of money that is being spend; but money alone will not solve this.

Mind you, the downfall is already under way: I remember another article on slashdot saying that the last years, articles in scientific papers came less and less from the USA, and more and more from Europe and Asia. Every year, the comparison with USA children with others from western countries gets more and more negative for the USA, etc.

All in all, it's a bit sad, really, though with those redneck-bible-belt states, I can't say it's really a surprise. We have fought for centuries to get rid of the christian dogma's, the church and biblical 'truths'...and you guys are embracing it again voluntarily! Now, that's nuts!

Maybe it was done by the same people who do the Republican party's astroturfing.

We haven't seen the full potential for abuse of wireless yet. Everyone loves the fact we can get rid of cords, but no one realizes that as soon as you send something over the air, it can be intercepted. Interception is very difficult with wires, as data is essentially moving from Point A to Point B. With wireless, data is emanated from Point A, and a receiver at Point B detects it and picks it up. That data is now moving in a three dimensional space that is interfered with by wireless phones, cellphones, and anything else that has a strong enough electromagnetic field.

I will repeat myself. The abuses for wireless is unbelievable. If you have a wireless mouse and keyboard, all it takes is someone who wants to tap your connection. It doesn't take AT&T and the NSA to see what you're doing on your computer, it only takes your pissed off neighbor.

As wireless comes of age, people will love the simplicity and ease of use. Things will pair up easily and we will build our own personal networks. We will assume privacy because no one else is around. Case in point: Disney Mobile. What is intended for Mom and Dad to be able to keep tabs on their kids has been around for years, it's application intended for surveillance on Mom and Dad.

Lies are becoming a thing of the past. Now how honest are you? Who do you want watching over you?

The technology for surveillance is here and has been for a long time. It's time we recognize it and begin calling for transparency in the governance of those who monitor the surveillance.

I'll jump on the bandwagon when we can get rid of the power cable. When is power over wireless coming to computer peripherals?

A few years ago I read about a technology that does intend to get rid of the power cables. It's a mat you can plug in and then place on the desk. Any compatible device placed on top of the mat is then able to draw power directly from that. The interesting thing is that you can place several devices on it at once, each one draws the appropriate voltage and current for its operation, and the whole thing is safe for you to put your hands on. The last I heard, there was already a small version for sale (maybe 12x12 inches) and you could also get simple conversion kits for devices like phones and music players, so that you could charge them up by just placing them on the mat.

Ah ha! I found it, the MobileWise Wire-Free Electric Power: ABC news story, another link, and one more. The company's website (mobilewise.com) appears to be something else entirely now, though.

I understand how pollution could lead to these increases in bacteria etc. Is it possible that the increase in methane gas (as noted here http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=2274439& page=1) could also be playing a role in what life is able to survive while others do not?

Note that if you research the article a bit, you'll find that the "researchers" didn't hack the MacBook through the built-in wireless adaptor, they actually used a 3rd party wireless card plugged into it. They did it on a Mac just for the publicity storm they hoped it would generate (and lookie here, they were right).

So all the crap about "Oh oh, now your Mac is just as insecure as a Windows Box" is really, well, wrong.

And researchers deserves the double-quotes in my opinion; anyone with a nickname like "Jonny Cache" seems a bit silly to me in the first place.

Ya know, I read and re-read the article at least three times (I really did!), because all I kept getting out of it was the sheer cluelessness of its premise. Seriously, Outlook? Is there anyone out there whose spent more than five minutes ruminating over computer OS issues who believes that Microsoft is seriously gonn get behind Linux/Unix versions of its flagship products?

Besides Dvorak, I mean.

The article also cites Shockwave and iTunes as examples; but I've never felt even remotely outta the loop for being without either one of them. I frankly don't understood the weird obsession with those silly little Mac music players (my 2-year-old, 20gb, non-DRM compliant, format agnostic iRiver still kicks serious enough ass, thank you); and as for Shockwave ... well ... in I dunno how many years of XP usage I've had to put up with, I've never even had to bother with using Shockwave, so why install it? So I can ... what ... finally have that full, uncrippled Disney.com experience?

There's only one thing that ever brings me back to Windows with any regularity. And that's gaming, pure and simple. You show me a critical mass of support from the mainstream PC gaming industry for Linux/Unix support, and I'll be outta here faster than Mindy Gates can say "Microsoft Bob."

You are making the mistake of applying logic to the current administration's decision making process. Military bases across the country are being shut down; Cheyenne Mountain is merely part of a wider trend. Do not suppose that this closure means that a covert base will take up the slack: if you applied this logic to the Republicans cutting of NYC's anti-terrorism funding, you might suppose that the feds were spending it on something better, something that would protect NYC. Alas, this is where that money went. To "protect" a popcorn factory in the middle of nowhere. The neo-cons want WW3 because they think it means Jesus will come back and judge the living and the dead. Now, we don't need NORAD to be safe & secure under a mountain for that, do we? Jesus will judge it wherever it is.

I don't think that Hesbollah cares about Palestinian people. I think the controlling top cares about propagation of their ideology and they really don't care about their people. If Arafat cared about his people, he would have went with Israel's offers, when Clinton was the middle-man and would have had peace.

I don't believe Iran wants peace, especially not after what their president said about Israel and all jews.

I see. how about this

So true - I mean look at Danica Patrick, in a sport that includes engineering, and how she's been shunned and marginalized because she's a woman.

Whatever you're referring to, it is not stopping her. Two recent 4th place finishes, 2005 Rookie of the Year and Danica just signed on to a top team for the next season: http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory?id=2234056. I wouldn't mark this shunned and marginalized.

Carl Everett? Is that you? Wow, a major league baseball player posting on /. - now I've seen everything...

He did a search on Google for sites containing child pornography, went to the sites and viewed images and later opened the thumbnails and viewed the pictures for about five minutes while masturbating twice. He later went in and emptied his temporary internet files but did not delete his internet history.

Unfortunately in many states you would get a shorter sentence for molesting a child. There are many organizations trying to get the laws changed to carry a stiffer sentence. In fact in Nebraska if you are short you only get probation.

Cases like this are further proof that we do not need the Constitution to be a living document. We also need to get Judges to quit looking for precedence to decide every case. I hope this goes to a higher court or appealed again on the grounds of illegal search and seizure. Do I think the guy is guilty? Hell yes but the ends do not justify the means. There should be border searches, but I also feel there should be a limit to what they are searching for and what they can search.

My final thought is that I have seen no proof that the images were actually of a child. He was looking for child porn but did he find it or did he just find an 18 year old that looks younger than she/he really is? Splitting a hair yes, but if they cannot prove the person in the picture is under 18 this would only be attempt to commit a crime.

The US does not have the environmental conditions to make sugar, and hence would have to make ethanol from corn, which is not energy productive.

sr180 , I agree 100%, that is why my original post linked to articles that show ethanol could be made in the United States from switchgrass .

For example, the article I linked from ABC News is entitled "Switch Grass: Alternative Energy Source?", and states:

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." ...
David Bransby, a professor at Auburn University in Auburn, Ala., supervises research into ways to optimize switchgrass production. He told ABC News that researchers know how to grow, plant, harvest and deliver switchgrass, but now they need a market for it. And the biggest barrier to that is government policy.

Bransby said the Department of Energy will only fund a pilot project to produce energy using switchgrass, about 10 to 15 tons a day. There are no plans for commercial plants that could develop technology to convert switchgrass into ethanol on a large scale.

Craig Stevens, a spokesman for the Department of Energy, told ABC News that the government wants to make sure the projects are viable on a small scale before expanding. "We need to walk before we can run," Stevens said, "and we need to make sure these technologies work."
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."

"We've known this for a long time," Sperling said. "Why has nothing happened? Part of it is we do need more R and D [research and development], but I think what we really need is a commitment on the industry and business side to invest."

For the government's part, Bush's 2007 budget will include $150 million -- a $59 million increase over the fiscal year 2006 -- to help develop bio-based transportation fuels from agricultural waste products, such as wood chips, stalks or switchgrass.

"Corn is an OK source for ethanol," said Daniel Kammen, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley and director of its Institute of the Environment. "But if you really want to hit a home run, you need to go to cellulose."

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."

Or they could just click here

Seriously. Even wanting to bitch about piracy there and now is disgraceful when there are more important things at hand.

Seriously. Even wanting to bitch about piracy there and now is disgraceful when there are more important things at hand.

And quit parroting the teacher union's crap they spew about home schooling.

Look, anyone can find examples of students both home schooled and public schooled and use that as reasons to support their side of the story.

Here's mine: The church that I attend lets a homeschool organization rent our facilities once a week. They have about 100 kids come in for group lessons. Parents with specialized skills teach at that time. I don't know what all of the classes are, but I know that art is one of them because I'll come to church some Sundays to find the halls turned into art galleries.

I've walked in to see orderly lines of students, older students willingly helping with the younger students (instead of beating them up). It is the students' responsibility to set up, break down, and clean the classrooms, and I've seen them doing this -- not just without complaint -- but eagerly and efficiently. If I happen to be at the church building on the day that they meet, the children look you in the eye and greet you politely. They say things like "pardon me", "please", "thank you." It's almost hard to picture if you've been through the public school systems. They have a bulletin board with all of the announcements for the organization in one of the halls. On the occasions when I've stopped to read it, I see that they have sports leagues, proms, and academic contests. The feel that I get is that there is all of the benefits of the public school system and few of the drawbacks.

The school that I grew up in was far removed from the inner-city, graffiti-coated, gang-invested stereotype. But if I look back on my own "socialization", I have to wonder at the arguments against homeschool. It almost seems that it's a blind "quantity trumps quality" generalization -- that being properly introduced into society requires that I be surrounded by 30 other children in the classroom, and a sea of them during the lunch break. And one couldn't possibly function as a proper lady or gentleman in society without that. It seems more a Darwinian approach. The ones with certain traits survive and thrive. And many on Slashdot know that those traits aren't generally the traits that necessarily make you thrive in the real world. In fact, it usually takes a good deal of unlearning, unsocialization, before you realize that the world doesn't necessarily work the way it did in school.

home schooling is villified by those who fear its results.

You can expect similar arguments from the Teachers Unions and those who are held in its thrall to any advance in education which leads to a loss of their power and influence.

And thus the reaction against this charter school. The fact is, it is not just this charter school. It is ALL charter schools. The online content is really a secondary issue. The real key here is the unionization. In the public school systems, the union holds a monopoly. Charter schools represent a threat because they fall outside of the monopoly's clutches. Teachers in a charter school can *gasp* be fired for poor performance. Like him or hate him, John Stossel did a very interesting program called Stupid In America: How Lack of Choice Cheats Our Kids Out of a Good Education. It was about the union opposition to charter schools. I remember that there was an interview with a teacher's union official in which the reporter tried to get the official to admit that there could be a union teacher that was not fit to teach and should be fired. The official would not say it, instead claiming that there was no such thing as a bad teacher and there was absolutely no good reason to fire one. Again, this doesn't ring true with my education experience.

This is also one of the reasons there is nearly a universal backlash in the field of education against No Child Left Behind. This is a hate that crosses party lines, be

Owners of property have a right under our Constitution to sell thier property to another consenting party for whatever price they choose

Wrong. Apparently you've never heard of eminent domain. Or of the history and rationale behind anti-trust laws. Both limit property rights in the United States.

and that right is an inalienable freedom.

Wrong again. The universe has no concept of this fiction you call inalienable or natural rights. If you don't believe me, then go provoke a grizzly bear and then attempt to argue with him/her about your rights to life, liberty and the persuit of happiness.

As a consolation, I'm sure Kenneth Lay (posthumously) and British Petroleum would be interested in promoting your point of view.

The article said airports and other installations. Why wouldn't this be useful for protecting part of a city? Israel has had over 80 rockets fired at over the last couple of days, and with many at the city of Haifa today. I suspect Israel is thinking of protecting cities along the border.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2 188501 Says 100 rockets so far
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/13/mideast/ index.html
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,203253,00.html

cow-tipping is not actually feasible, as far as I can tell.

+5 Insightful? So-called terrorist plans?

Yeah, there is no such thing as terrorism, I forgot. George Bush invented it. Why is it that any good news at any time MUST have an alterior motive? We always hear, "It's an election year", or "isn't the timing just a little too convenient". The governement has been telling us about disrupted plots for years. The first link on a google search pulls up "Thwarted Terrorist Plots Since Sept. 11 Attacks" on the ABC news site (or is ABC a republican talking points shill now?)

The threats out there are very real. We're lucky to have people and processes in place to protect us. Worldwide there have been more than 5312 documented deadly attacks since 9/11. That's not a body or injury count folks, that's just the attacks. At that rate, there are going to be plots uncovered - some even in the US.

Feel free to be snide and cynical. Some of us will continue to fight for your right to say whatever you believe.

Now why don't you go back to the DU and work on the science experiment that proves 9/11 was engineered by the evil President Chimpy McHalliburton and his cronies.

--

I miss the pre six-digit UID slashdot days.

Haven't these people ever heard of Blipverts? It might be as effective to have people zoom through the commercials as see them "live".

If there's one thing the Internet has shown, it's that people do *not* want to pay for content.

The people at Apple might disagree with you (here).

From http://corporate.disney.go.com/corporate/board_of_ directors.html I got the following list:

John E. Bryson
white male

John S. Chen
non-white

Judith L. Estrin
non-male

Robert A. Iger
white male

Steve Jobs
White male

Fred H. Langhammer
white male

Aylwin B. Lewis
non-white

Monica C. Lozano
non-male

Robert W. Matschullat
white male

George J. Mitchell
white male

Leo J. O'Donovan, S.J.
white male

John E. Pepper, Jr.
white male

Orin C. Smith
white male

Gary L. Wilson
white male

So, that's 10 white males to 4 that are either non-white or non-male. Please tell me again how these aren't dominated by old white males? If you want, we can get into a discussion on their ages, but I think that you get my point.

In light of recent events, I think it's difficult to call Warren Buffet greedy or pathetic. As a self-made man, he lives remarkably frugally, and is exceptionally philanthropic. For more information, check the Wikipedia article on him.

I think that people that use high bandwidth apps should pay for infrastructure upgrades before all broadband users.

Most ISPs have a speed option. Is this not higher bandwidth users paying for the high bandwidth infrastructure? Why should they also have to charge the content providers who, no doubt, have to pay their ISPs higher rates for higher bandwidths also?

Network nuetrality would forbid QoS from being implemented. All packets are created equal.

Where did I say I wanted network neutrality down to the bit? Let me describe two possible discriminations. They are to discriminate by Content Type and Content Sender. For the most part we have used Content Types in examples of possible services. The discrimination I'm saying would be bad is by Content Sender and this is what the big ISPs want. Most articles I've read talk about Sender discrimination (http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=2108558 &page=1) even if they do mention all packets being equal it's only because it's easier to understand than making a separate distinction between Type and Sender.

Are you proposing that ISPs would decide not to take money from providers because they aren't big enough?

I work with salesmen that wouldn't touch a customer not willing to pay more than a quarter million. That's for software with no deliverable after they've have the software. So, Yes that's exactly what I'm saying.

I also think that if an ISP entered into an exclusive arrangment with on app provider they would open themselves up to anti-trust litigation.

I really don't think anti-trust threats curb much of the abuse. It's always an after the fact solution.

I want the internet to just be the internet. If Comcast works best with Vonage/Google/Barnsandnobles I don't want to have to switch to Sipphone/Yahoo/Amazon just because I switch my ISP. It's all about customer choice. Don't give it away. It's not worth it.