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Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.

The problem are large, loosely regulated, air pollution producing vehicles. From ABC News:

"You have 16 ships that come into the harbor, they're going to pollute as much as a million cars on the road, and they're not being regulated," said Todd Campbell, policy director of the Coalition for Clean Air. Campbell spoke standing in front of Burbank City Hall, where smog obscured the view of mountains behind him. "I think we're definitely heading into a crisis."

The important thing to remember, however, is that the lion's share of all toxic gasses and airborne particulates are produced by power plants.

I am in no way defending gasoline powered automobiles, we should be looking for alternative fuels there, but we have much lower apples on the tree to reach for. The only problem is that most of these apples have powerful lobbies and as yet have not produced in the arm chair environmentalist the negative stigma of the gasoline automobile.

That's what I get for updating my website at the same time. On the plus side, those articles are rather humorous...

Hed.

That's what I get for updating my website at the same time. On the plus side, those articles are rather humorous...

Hed.

I personally don't know why anyone boils water in the microwave. With an electric kettle you fill it up, turn it on, then wait for it to turn off. Unless you know the timing of your microwave you have to watch it to make sure it dosn't boil over, especially at work where you can be called away at any time, a kettle just seems so much easier. Then there's always the danger of superheating the water (ok, it's been overhyped, but it can still happen.) Microwaving water danger

Well, thank you very little, Boston, for making a liar out of me.

Leave it to the Chowds....

Not likely seeing how the 'Father' of Pakistan's nuclear program has just been fired for illegally selling nuclear secrets to Libya and Iran.

Ok, I've started a mini-debate with that post. A quick Google turns up some evidence in my favor.

According to the article, in an abbreviated IQ test (50 questions) the average for football player's score is the same as the average for other professions. Of course, you'll note that the average for programmers is higher than the average for any particular position on the football field. But I wasn't asserting that football players are geniuses, just that the game requires a reasonable level of intelligence.

Cheers
-b

I was just in the San Jose Mayors office yesterday. (I'm revamping one of the councilmembers websites) Even in the capitol of silicon valley, the IT is sooo outdated you would not want to be there.

The councilmembers assistant I was working with had a very old dell. I think it was a PII 400mhz. It was definetly running NT4.0 and the video driver was borked (16 color display yay!) I took a few minutes to fix it because I was there.

Thing is, EVERYONE there was running NT4.0. I think even the IIS servers hosting the cities web sites runs on NT4.0.

Maybe that's why our mayor had a stroke the other day. He was thinking about how M$ was going to EOL NT4 and the costs of licensing win2k. Maybe someone should tell him about these newfangled free operating systems.

But all jokes aside, if you do want to work for the .gov I really recomend coming in as a contractor unless you like working with outdated technology.

Editors? We don't need no stinkin' editors!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you The Lion King 1 1/2. No fooling.

Go.com has a similar article

Well, in addition to Brother Bear they brought us Country Bears .

Methinks there's a Disney VP that has a thing for furries or something.

* Request a postage prepaid mailer to be sent to them through the recycling link on the website. Upon receipt of the mailer, simply place up to 5 expired EZ-D discs in the envelope and send in any regular mailbox.

* Participate in our upcoming incentive program. Start saving your discs now and upon sending in six expired EZ-D discs, you will become eligible to receive one free EZ-D?. More details coming soon.

Just wait until those disposable DVDs (as mentioned on slashdot) that only play 2-3 times hit the market

EZ-D's are already on the market. They're made with a material that reacts with the oxygen in the air to render them unplayable after 48 hours. I agree that it's rather wasteful, but they do have a recycling program that even has the incentive of a free disc when you send in 6 expired ones. Still wasteful, and it should come with a prepaid envelope to the recycler. I think it's just a matter of time before, whether through a set-top box or over the internet, every movie in existence will be available for instant download. At that point, hopefully, all this crap will go away...

The only tragic victim of this experiment was this man.

A bespecticled bunny rabbit and moose were seen running from the scene.

The missing W key story is one of the best debunked lies of this administration. Which is an impressive feat.

Check this story out. Yes, the place was a mess, but the General Services Administration determined that "The condition of the real property was consistent with what we would expect to encounter when tenants vacate office space after an extended occupancy."

If you read the story, you'll also see that the GAO and the GSA have both said that there is no documented evidence of vandalism.

But then again, who needs documentation when your support base never looks any further than innuendo?

I once went to the mall and saw a lego show where they had all these cool things made. A statue of liberty model about 4-5 ft high stands out in my mind.

Some say we should worry more about incoming asteroids wiping out all life on earth which would mean we should establish human colonies on the Moon, Mars and elsewhere to hedge our bets against such an occurance (could return to repopulate the planet after a time). Others say earth is heading for environmental disaster and the solution might be to leave it for lifeless places and artificial environments where we can do no harm. Others yet want us to think about overpopulation which could be solved by spreading out to other planets and while others say that sociopolitical causes are the main of hunger today, there is a limit to the number of people that can live here.

Why did people come to the New World, not just in Columbus' time but earlier from Asia? Why did they send their canoes to Pacific islands? The time will come that our reasons will match theirs. Today the reasons are not yet there and the will is only shared by a few but the reasons will likely become more apparent and the population more willing with time.

Saw this story yesterday on ABCNEWS.com, Study: Sleep Essential for Creative Thinking, Sharper Memories . The thing I didn't understand was, didn't we already know this before? Students who sleep more tend to get better grades, students who sleep less, don't? But remember, as anyone who has taken an elementary logic or stats course, the first thing they teach you is: causation != correlation. For example, in the above instance, it could be that students who sleep less are from poorer families, and have to work more (read: jobs), thereby getting less sleep, while people who get more sleep are from more wealthy families, etc. I'd be interested in seeing the real study data instead of just a news article. Here's a paragraph from the ABCNEWS article that I thought was interesting:

History is dotted with incidents where artists and scientists have awakened to make their most notable contributions after long periods of frustration. For example, that's how Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev established the periodic table of elements and British poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote his epic "Kubla Khan."

A sweatshop

While I agree that for the most part, sweatshops are awful things relative to what we see in the US (I can't speak for other countries), I saw a news piece (I think on 60 Minutes) about sweatshops. They pointed out that after one sweatshop had closed, a lot of the workers went into prostitution. This information was provided by UNICEF.

Read this article for more details:
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/2020/GiveMeABreak/g mab_sweatshops031011-1.html

"...in poor countries, the Nike factories that rich American students call sweatshops routinely pay twice what local factories pay, and more than triple what people earn doing much harder and more dangerous work in the fields. Arunga says people in Kenya would volunteer to work in sweatshops for free, just to have access to clean running water and electricity without carrying firewood."

"After the protests against Kathie Lee's clothing line, Wal-Mart withdrew its contract from one of the "sweatshops." American complaints about child labor persuaded factories in Bangladesh to stop hiring adolescents. The result, according to UNICEF, is many of the young girls turned to prostitution."

I'll go out on a limb and say working in a brothel is worse than a sweatshop.

Remember, a lot of the issues around manufacturing jobs going overseas are similar to tech jobs going overseas, i.e. overseas workers are cheaper than domestic workers, and the jobs provide these people with better lives (higher relative incomes than their other options). And for the record, I hate offshoring as much as the next tech geek, although you can't argue that it leads to some good... just not for us...

Just as the "Project for a New American Century" (PNAC) *needed* a "Pearl Harbor" to implement its police state plans, the forces that wish to shut down and control the information age need a "Digital Pearl Harbor" to implement their digital police state plans.

The phrasing "Digital Pearl Harbor" is used in a fashion very similar to how "Pearl Harbor" is used in the PNAC documents.

For further reading (also: google "PNAC pearl harbor")

Two years ago a project set up by the men who now surround George W Bush said what America needed was "a new Pearl Harbor". Its published aims have, alarmingly, come true. : John Pilger :12 Dec 2002

The cabal of war fanatics advising the White House secretly planned a "transformation" of defense policy years ago, calling for war against Iraq and huge increases in military spending. A "catalyzing event -- like a new Pearl Harbor" -- was seen as necessary to bring this about.

March 10 -- Years before George W. Bush entered the White House, and years before the Sept. 11 attacks set the direction of his presidency, a group of influential neo-conservatives hatched a plan to get Saddam Hussein out of power. (...) And in a report just before the 2000 election that would bring Bush to power, the group predicted that the shift would come about slowly, unless there were "some catastrophic and catalyzing event, like a new Pearl Harbor."

So when events start leading up to "Digital Pearl Harbor" ... make sure you've got all the apps and source code you care about on local storage. Because everything that in any way possible could be utilized by a "digital terrorist" is going to be banned and taken off the net.

Commentary on same.

Cheers.

I find fan noise very pleasant. While at work, because of the whir of fans around me, It completely masks out the ringing in my ears. It's only when I get to the quietness at home do I notice them ringing again.

I very much doubt the db level of computer fans can come close to further damaging the inner ear..... Unless you're using one of These

This link describes an Ice Cream parlor in Florida that has a clear glass bathroom door, activated to opaque by the lock. According to this source they cost $15,000 installed.

• Lion King 2
• Lion King 1-1/2
• Stitch (a sequel to Lilo and Stitch, and a "pilot" for the new TV series)
• Atlantis: Milo's Return

• Lion King 2
• Lion King 1-1/2
• Stitch (a sequel to Lilo and Stitch, and a "pilot" for the new TV series)
• Atlantis: Milo's Return

• Lion King 2
• Lion King 1-1/2
• Stitch (a sequel to Lilo and Stitch, and a "pilot" for the new TV series)
• Atlantis: Milo's Return

Looks to me like they are returning to the dark days of 'The Black Hole', 'Pete's Dragon' and 'The Rescuers'.

But I thought we spoke about those negative connotations.

That's weird - simoniker slightly different headline but the rest of it is identical to the submitted post.

2004-01-14 21:33:38 It's Official: USA to the Moon and Mars by 2015 (articles,space) (rejected)

This afternoon George Bush announced space exploration plans for the USA to return to the Moon by 2015, the design and construction of a new space vehicle fleet by 2014 (called the Crew Exploration Vehicle) to replace the aging space shuttles which will be retired in 2010, and the construction of a permanent Moon base, followed by manned missions to Mars. The initiative begins with a $1 billion increase to NASA's budget and $12 billion in new space exploration money over next five years. However Congress is concerned about how to pay for the new space policy, initiative in the face of a $500 billion national budget deficit. AP via Yahoo has a Moon/Mars/space policy FAQ. NASA Chief Scientist/Astronaut Dr. John Grunsfeld will discuss U.S. Space Policy today at 5pm (ET) in an online chat. They want questions. More at NASA and the New York Times among others.

I know this comment may be somewhat OT but I had to add a comment. Anyone know what's going on with this? Maybe related to the many 500-class errors I've been getting lately?

When I purchase a CD for full price, if I purchased a license, I should be able to get another if my cd gets damaged for the price of the media

I bought the "Finding Nemo" DVD for my neice. Inside the case, I was surprised to find a note directing me to their website. If you register the DVD with Disney, they have a media replacement policy in which they will replace a damaged disk for $10. (cost plus, plus apparently!)

So it appears that Disney sold me a license to view Finding Nemo, and not a DVD containing that film.

That does not make Disney any less malevolent than any of the other copyright cartel members, but at least they are being clear about what they sold me.

A dumb out-of-work actor gets caught letting his copy of a screener be the one that gets onto the 'net. I wouldn't call this a setback, I'd call this proof that this idea works.

Holy jumping to conclusions batman!

...and stupid ones too. Like this 69 year old being responsible for his copy getting on the net.

For once, a copy-protection technology that I don't think anybody can argue with...

...and not suprisingly, you sound like the type of person with whom it is not worth arguing.

As we all know, no one ever distributes videos which belong to celebrities without their permission.

I'm disgusted that the average citizen allows this. ... Both the Democrats and Republicans have lied and lied, and neither is going to help us stabilize the economy

I generally agree. So what is the average citizen supposed to do about it? I wouldn't say the media entirely ignores the subject, so I wouldn't blame this favorite scapegoat for not bringing the problem to the attention of the average citizen. Furthermore, a quick google finds "And a majority of Americans (55%) considers government corruption a very important problem (another 34% think it is a somewhat important problem, and only 9% think it is not very important or not important at all).", so I wouldn't say that most Americans aren't aware of the problem. So when you say you're disgusted the average citizen allows this -- Well, it wasn't contingent upon the average citizens approval either. Again - what am I supposed to do? Vote? I'm trying that, but it's not working out too well, since every choice except the blank line lies to me. Am I supposed to complain when they're in office? I try that too, which generally results in a diplomatic reply that, when distilled, says "I didn't want your opinion anyhow, now bugger off and vote for me next cycle." Perhaps I'm supposed to pray - but I somehow doubt that'll be any more effective than voting and writing.

The origin of this wierd myth is probably as described here.

Initially the number of Jewish dead was estimated according to the occupancy of the towers. As many people weren't at work yet or managed to escape, the actual numbers of both total deaths and Jewish deaths was much lower. Someone noticed that suddenly there were a lot less Jewish dead then in the first estimate and came up with an absurd theory.

Anyway here is a list of victims - I see quite a number of jewish names on it: list

How much research did you do on this, exactly?

How do you account for the fact that mars is also showing signs of global warming? Sure, it's possible that a bunch of martians are having their own industrial revolution at the same time as ours, but it seems more likely the sun has something to do with it. And sure enough, it turns out the sun is getting hotter. And sunspot activity is changing, and the strength of the sun's magnetic field is changing, and so on. And we don't have good models to account for much of it, and we don't have good data going back more than a few decades on much of it either.

My personal theory is that incrementing the year on our calendars causes global warming. The whole time that people think the planet has gotten hotter, the calendar has been increasing! Coincidence?

I'm waiting for this one. Feasible compared to fusion and a nice alternative to earth pollution. Sim City 2000 anyone? And without the microwave-zapping incidents too.

Powerful women are such a huge turn-on for me...

Hmmm, according to this article it has not affected the sales in the US either.

But this article at ABCNews seems to indicate that its not piracy thats really affecting the sales, but services like iTunes -

"CD sales are down 15 percent from last year, while legal online services like the new Napster and Apple's iTunes have taken off, especially for the holidays. Apple's iTunes sold more than $1 million in download gift certificates since October."

I think that more than CD-Rs or mp3 piracy, its services like these which would affect the records sales.

Good point.

Small planes crash in to buildings without a huge effect. In 1945, a B-25 crashed in to the Empire State Building and did not destroy it.

In January, 2002, a small plane crashed into a building in Florida and did not destroy the building.

The initial rollout of Soft Walls would be in large new fly by wire planes. Older, large non-fly by wire planes present various problems.

Small general aviation planes would probably not be required to ever have Soft Walls retrofitted, though perhaps someday new general aviation fly by wire planes would?

The Soft Walls FAQ (PDF) says:

7. Can Soft Walls be deployed on non-fly-by-wire aircraft?

In fly-by-wire aircraft, Soft Walls is "just" a software change. However, only a fraction of the fleet today is fly-by-wire. From the New York Times, April 2002 [9]:

"In November, the F.A.A. counted about 2,300 fly-by-wire planes among Boeing and Airbus models, the two most popular among big jets; another 8,700 planes in those fleets had conventional mechanical systems. Herman A. Rediess, director of the Office of Aviation Research at the F.A.A., said in a paper representing his own views: ''For the near future, no airline will have the financial resources to even modify the F.B.W. aircraft. It's not clear that they would even have sufficient funds to retrofit the non-F.B.W. aircraft.''

Adding fly-by-wire ability to older planes would be wildly expensive. George K. Muellner, an Air Force veteran and president of Boeing's research and development arm, called the Phantom Works, recalled that the Air Force had taken some of its oldest F-4's and converted them into pilotless drones, for use as target practice. The conversion, he said, cost more than the plane did new."

Converting older aircraft to fly-by-wire is clearly out of the question. However, there is an alternative, which is to modify the autopilot systems in older aircraft to implement fly-bywire. The effectiveness of this strategy is still an open question (see the next question).

I'm all in favor of any law that punishes drivers for doing anything distracting, because I figure it's my freedom to stay alive vs their freedom to save a little time or relieve boredom. But it's surprising what things are legal while driving in various states; for example, breastfeeding in Ohio and drinking in Montana (where there's also no speed limit!).

Nokia is just marketing the game, that's all. Each player in the Nokia Sugar Bowl is also receiving an N-Gage as part of their gift bag.

The author of that article, Darren Rovell, was doing a sports business segment on ESPNews talking about how he thought that the N-Gage was the best gift to get out of all the bowl games. He also speaks nicely of it in that article as well. He's their business guy and he didn't seem to have a damn clue about just how bad the device was or how poorly it was selling.

Not counting Office macro viruses, there are less than fifty viruses for the 'classic' Mac OS. If you download an old copy of Disinfectant, you can read about all of them and what they do. Very few were malicious. I don't know if there even were any Office macro viruses that were malicious when activated on a Mac-- IME, the Mac was always just a carrier of them.

There are still no known viruses specific to Mac OS X. Most Mac users I know don't even bother with antivirus software, and the ones who do do it just as a courtesy, so they don't pass along any infected stuff sent to them by a Windows user.

Trust me, if there was an OS X virus, you'd hear about it-- CNet, ZDNet, and the rest of the Wintel-centric computing press would be tripping over their schadenfreude in their rush to get the story out. If you don't believe me, then you missed this article.

~Philly

Well then, you're obviously not an Afghan guerrilla.

Although political pressures are important, I think it's the journalistic pressures that predominate. Bad news sells papers. Scientists are as prone as the rest of us to getting the overall impression that things are getting worse, because bad news travels faster than good news and sells better. Scientists then interpret the data in terms of what they already know.

On the other hand it is not difficult to show that the last fifteen years have followed the course of the predictions of 15 years ago. Nor is this surprising.

The only way you could show "the predictions of 15 years ago" are accurate is by ignoring the ones that weren't. By my memory of the past decade, warming predictions of 15 years ago were based on primitive computer models whose results were continually being revised downward until they came close to fitting the data. But maybe we were paying attention to different people. So could you be more specific as to whose predictions of 15 years ago were accurate, and what those predictions were?

Also, what do you think about indications that other planets are warmingtoo?

We've been taking fingerprints of criminals - and suspected criminals - for decades, and it hasn't extended to include anything unreasonable.

You have a different defintion of "unreasonable" than I do then. I think it's unreasonable that people volunteering to work with kids these days are often fingerprinted and run through FBI checks because of paranoia about child molestation. (Which isn't to say parents shouldn't exercise reasonable caution.)

I also think it's unreasonable that recovered fingerprints are used as evidence despite the lack of scientific backing

The NEC PowerMate Eco is an environmentally friendly desktop PC. Principal among its features is its very low power consumption. This would give you some (though not all) of the advantages of a desktop computer with the power consumption of a laptop.

Or buy an Apple; they're relatively efficient as well.

"A key piece of the information leading to recent terror alerts was fabricated, according to two senior law enforcement officials in Washington and New York."

The real star is Bridget Moynahan of Coyote Ugly fame.

If you want asimov theres a movie adaptation of I Robot coming out next year. And hey, guess what, starring none other than Will Smith!*points and laughs as you curl up on ground in fetal position* IMDB Movies.com