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There was a study a few years ago about traffic in cities. They found that if all the drivers kept to rules that most cities would halt into complete grid lock.
People need to break rules to clear junctions, to pass cars that are stuck, and even force priority to not starve lanes going into a junction.

I travel by bus to and from work in Amsterdam, it is quite a long trip which includes traffic jams in the inner city. The bus driver needs to often break the rules to be able to pass cars, and force priority on junction because they are often stuck. Cars are backing up, cars are trying to make room.

That is kinda BS.
This is the popular press articles about the study:
http://abcnews.go.com/Technolo...
http://physicsbuzz.physicscent...

Here is the actual study. http://arxiv.org/abs/0901.3513
Basically they designed a automata simulation that would have gridlock, and made a rule that would avoid jams forming, but called that rule "rule-breaking"; probably because if you did that in a car you would die in a head-on collision.

Abstract:

A system of agents moving along a road in both directions is studied numerically within a cellular-automata formulation. An agent steps to the right with probability q or to the left with 1q when encountering other agents. Our model is restricted to two agent types, traffic-rule abiders (q=1) and traffic-rule ignorers (q=1/2). The traffic flow, resulting from the interaction between these two types of agents, is obtained as a function of density and relative fraction. The risk for jamming at a fixed density, when starting from a disordered situation, is smaller when every agent abides by a traffic rule than when all agents ignore the rule. Nevertheless, the absolute minimum occurs when a small fraction of ignorers are present within a majority of abiders. The characteristic features for the spatial structure of the flow pattern are obtained and discussed.

The basic idea behind Romneycare/Obamacare is sound ...

FUCK NO!!!!

Romneycare was designed to shift huge parts of the cost of Massachusetts health care to the federal government:

"There is nothing inherent in the economics of Massachusetts that should be singled out," said Gruber. "There's only two things that should be singled out in Massachusetts- one is we did have widespread acceptance of the mandate, which may not be true elsewhere. But the biggest thing that Romney's not talking about is in Massachusetts the federal government paid for about half of our plan. We didn't pay for it all on our own."

If Romneycare is the model for Obamacare, then Obamacare is a SHAM.

There's no one to shift the cost of Obamacare on to.

Oh wait, yes there is. The taxpayers.

Wind Farm? Not Off My Back Porch

But another obstacle is a political heavyweight with a famous name, a local Cape Cod address and hardline opposition to the project.

U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy's primary residence is in Hyannisport, Mass., on the Kennedy family compound. It's one of the closest landfalls -- about 6 miles -- from the proposed site of the 440-feet turbines, which would be visible from his house as well as other surrounding coastlines.

In all fairness, Kennedy's aides were probably afraid he'd try to drive over to the windmills out at sea.

So you're saying that Ed Kennedy was even more of a winner than Trump?

Thank you for the citation. Now, how about the other part of my request: explain, why you feel this is fascist of him? Not just wrong, but fascist ? And why it was not "fascist" of Ted Kennedy to do the same? Thanks.

Wind Farm? Not Off My Back Porch

But another obstacle is a political heavyweight with a famous name, a local Cape Cod address and hardline opposition to the project.

U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy's primary residence is in Hyannisport, Mass., on the Kennedy family compound. It's one of the closest landfalls -- about 6 miles -- from the proposed site of the 440-feet turbines, which would be visible from his house as well as other surrounding coastlines.

In all fairness, Kennedy's aides were probably afraid he'd try to drive over to the windmills out at sea.

Don't forget that just 3 years ago North Carolina effectively banned climate change science in order to appease coastal real estate developers.

(Do a search on "North Carolina climate change law" if you don't like ABC News. Plenty of other outlets reported the story as well.)

Here is the actual law:
http://ncga.state.nc.us/sessio...

Here is the relevant section.

What the bill was about was to put a stop to the various localities making up their own numbers and them demanding state funding to support their speculations.
What was happening was the various towns had gotten into a race for how much money they wanted from the state based on individual projections made by, well just anybody.

Note that the bill REQUIRES peer-reviewed science for projections. That is exactly requiring "climate change science" for projections.
Note that section (e) of the bill also specifically encourages academic research into sea-level change.

No rule, ordinance, policy, or planning guideline that defines sea level or a rate of sea-level rise within a coastal-area county shall be adopted except as provided by this section.
(b) The General Assembly does not intend to mandate the development of sea-level rise policy or rates of sea-level rise. The Coastal Resources Commission, in conjunction with the Division of Coastal Management, shall have the authority to define sea-level rise and develop rates of sea-level rise for the State.
(c) The Coastal Resources Commission shall be the only State agency authorized to define rates of sea-level rise for regulatory purposes and, if developed, shall do so in conjunction with the Division of Coastal Management. The Commission and the Division of Coastal Management may collaborate with other State agencies, boards, commissions, other public entities, or institutions when defining sea-level rise or developing rates of sea-level rise. These rates shall be determined using statistically significant, peer-reviewed historical data generated using generally accepted scientific and statistical techniques. Historic rates of sea-level rise may be extrapolated to estimate future rates of rise but shall not include scenarios of accelerated rates of sea-level rise unless such rates are from statistically significant, peer-reviewed data and are consistent with historic trends. Rates of sea-level rise shall not be one rate for the entire coast, but rather the Commission shall consider separately oceanfront and estuarine shorelines. For oceanfront shorelines, the Commission shall use no fewer than the four regions defined in the April 2011 report entitled "North Carolina Beach and Inlet Management Plan" published by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. The oceanfront regions are: Region 1 (Brunswick County), Region 2 (New Hanover, Pender, and Onslow Counties and a portion of Carteret County), Region 3 (a portion of Carteret County and Hyde County), and Region 4 (Dare and Currituck Counties). For estuarine shorelines, the Commission shall consider no fewer than two separate regions defined as those north of Cape Lookout and those south of Cape Lookout. In regions that may lack statistically significant, peer-reviewed historical data, rates from adjacent regions may be considered and modified using generally accepted scientific and statistical techniques to account for relevant historical geologic and hydrologic processes.
(d) Any State agency, board, commission, or institution that develops a policy addressing sea-level rise that includes a definition or rate of sea-level rise for the coastal-area counties shall use only the definitions and rates of sea-level rise developed by the Division of Coastal Management as approved by the Coastal Resources Commission.
(e) The provisions in this

Don't forget that just 3 years ago North Carolina effectively banned climate change science in order to appease coastal real estate developers.

(Do a search on "North Carolina climate change law" if you don't like ABC News. Plenty of other outlets reported the story as well.)

I don't think the issue is quite so simple here. Certainly all lives matter and only the most egregious racists would argue otherwise. The reason that we have a black lives matter movement right now is because of a perception (real or imagined, but I certainly see the validity) that black lives aren't being given the same value in our society as other lives. The hope is to draw attention to that disparity.

The issue with that is that there is the appearance that not even blacks care about black lives. Where were all the protests and outcry when this happened? Or this? There is a saying that goes "practice what you preach". Why should people care about your lives when you don't even give the appearance of caring about your own life? How can "black lives matter" if Tyshawn Lee's father would rather stick to his gang culture than give the police information that might help them catch the people that executed his son? How can they matter when black kids are killing each other everyday and not only is it condoned but often celebrated by their own community? Just as people won't respect you until you respect yourself, people won't put value on your life until you do.

So, a mass shooting that has now been labeled as terrorism happens in the state with the strictest gun control laws available in the US,

I stopped reading here, since California does not, in fact, have the strictest gun control laws in the US.

In any case, (1): they used a loophole in the rule against high-capacity assault rifles. So, one conclusion would be "they should close the loophole" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
and (2) they used neighbors to buy more of their guns. http://abcnews.go.com/US/neigh...

I think you are on the wrong page. Try here: http://abc.go.com/shows/shark-...

There is obviously a correlation between being dateless and becoming a terrorist.

It probably isn't especially high. It isn't hard to find examples of suicide bombers that were married.

Couple planned Isil suicide bombing of Westfield or Tube, court hears
Married to monster
Saddam Rewards Suicide Bombers' Families

I assume there's some desire to make it punitive. He was only treated that way because he was perceived to be a Muslim - I bet the school district can't point to a bunch of other cases where white kids have brought in electronics projects and had the police called. I imagine i'm not alone in the slashdot demographic as someone who brought random electronics to school, yet I never got anywhere close to arrest because of it.

I don't think it matters if the whole thing was orchestrated to show the school district was discriminatory. It appears that they are, and they should have to pay the price of that.

So you didn't here about the kids who are as young as 4 being accused of sexual harassment at school and having that as part of their permanent school record ... schools are f*'d up.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_...

Miguel Tejada was suspended for 105 games for failing to renew his Adderall exemption. He has ADHD and legitimately takes Adderall, but because it is on the banned substance list, and his exemption expired, he has a huge suspension.

It sure passes the "don't let a crisis go to waste" smell test to me.

Well, of course! The Statist types always complain about encryption and anonymity (and personal weapons, BTW) making their jobs more difficult. They are sincere, and what they say is true. It is just that at normal times we can rationally resist their urging, while at the times of crisis our collective rationality weakens and we allow major freedom-infringements to happen...

Rolling them back is hard, because the things like having to present an ID or even submit to a pat-down are not too tedious and the burden never reaches a crisis level of its own, despite occasional trouble-making by some prominent figures.

So, it has to cause permanent blindness before it passes the Anonymous Idiot test?

How can anyone be so wrong about "not one single person..." in this age of Google?

http://www.kob.com/article/sto...
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news...
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/he...

The list goes on and on.

"So are you sayiong that a Black American citizen can just show up in some all white village in rural Mississippi, and everyone will shower him or her with gifts? Invite them into their home for a nice dinner? Ignore them?"

Hate to burst your stereotypical statement, but I've seen multiple Black (& other ethnic) folks "just show up" here in MS. They didn't get showered with gifts, but were treated very politely (yep, invited to, and attend local churches)--much better than how I've seen the same color folks treated in other "more enlightened" places. Maybe you better get your news from someone w/o an ax to grind...

Oh sorry, THere is no racism in Mississippi, and everyone is a kind person, accomodating to all other races and religions. A true REniassance state of the new south, where all men and women are created equal, and all creeds colors and sexual preferences ar etreated with the utmost respoect.

whereas those northeren states blacks and other minoritiys are merely kept around so we have someone to hang when we get out th bedsheets foro our Klan meetings.

These folks at ol Miss must have been celebrating Obama's 2012 win, no doubt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Oh wait. Hey, maybe it was a 50th Anniversary celebration of their riots when theyy were very happy that the first black student, James Meredith was enrolled in Ol Miss. Hopefully they invited him to church.

A former serviceman, y'all really wanted to thank him for serving his country I guess:

http://www.history.com/this-da...

Even your Governor welcomed him with open arms by a personal escort making certain he got to class. Oh wait, your governor was blocking the doorway to not allow him in the building. I guess your Governor wanted to be certain this man who risked his life for our country, got a lot of that fine Mississippi air.

Y'all liked him so much, one of ya gave him his very own personal bullet for his very own in 1966. Damn - southerners sure do know how to treat people who are different than you/

At Brandon High School, which is apparentlly a proud school that trains young men and women to invite African-Americans to come to church, in 2012, 19 year old Deryl Dedmon got two life sentences for killing a black man by running over him with his pickup truck:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

The official story is that he and some friends were partying, when they decised they were going to go look for some black guy to harass.

You and I both know it was an accident that happened when Dedmon, was trying to invite the dead guy James Craig Anderson to come to church with him and his friends.

This year was a minor thing with another Brandon Student tweeting stupid racist comments on school time. Not a huge thing, but between us chachalacas, I don't think tshe cares for people based on their skin color.

And in the spirit of being ahead of the curve, Mississippi did not outla slavery until february 7, 2013. Or maybe 1995. If you believe in States Rights, you could legally own a person in Mississippi. until 2013. http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/he... See you in church.

The article you linked to was about "free speech zones" - those roped-off areas ALL politicians have fallen in love with (Remember Hillary's moving rope line????). These are repugnant but are a politician's way of making sure they get good glossy PR photos without a backdrop of protesters and also avoiding lots of loud yelling. That's ALL politicians, not the ones on the left or the right.

The critical part you seem to have missed, was that people in "free speech zones" are at least still free to speak. The modern left-wing lame-brain is another critter entirely - he/she/it insists others shut up and not be allowed to speak AT ALL. Your post completely fails to identify some conservative pushing that agenda.

Yep. Whether you want to destroy your kids lungs in London, choke on lovely smog in Paris, or give yourself cancer by walking around the polluted streets of Rome, Europe is definitely your go-to destination for people who want to walk around in cties.

Perhaps you haven't been paying much attention to the primary races, and I certainly can't blame you for that. I seldom have until this year. But when it comes to money, Bernie is doing just fine thanks to large numbers of small donations. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics...

As for being able to win in the general election, hypothetical polls show that Bernie does just as well as Hillary in match-ups against likely republican candidates. http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-th...

For once we have a chance to vote for something other than one of two lizards, and there is a real chance he can win. Lets not let that chance go to waste ;)

Social acceptance of homosexuals in society is at an all time high because it is perceived that they just want the freedom to live their lives without persecution. That can easily change if the legal persecution starts coming from supporters of that viewpoint.

It already has, haven't you heard of the baker forced to make a cake for a gay wedding against their beliefs in Colorado and the photographer in New Mexico? Doesn't matter where you stand on gay marriage, the fact that these people were forced to participate and endorse it against their beliefs is persecution. These couples could have gotten any of dozens of bakeries and photographers that would have been happy to provide the services, and possibly for cheaper, it wasn't about a cake or photographer, it was about forcing people to provide a service and participate in a ceremony that was against their beliefs and morals, whatever you might think of those beliefs.

If an organization that was against gay marriage went into a print shop owned by a openly gay individual and required them design and print and endorse anti-gay posters and handbills for a protest rally and sued them when they refused the same people who were cheering the gay couples getting married would be up in arms about requiring the print shop owner to print these items.

splinter free toilet tissue.

Not sure which is more awful, taking chances with splinters or living in Roman times and having to use a brine-soaked sponge that was fastened to a stick and used communally.

Close but incorrect.

The most disruptive technology of the last 100 years was . . .

Ta da . . .

Northern Toilet Tissue. Introduced in 1935. The very first splinter free toilet tissue.

Now that's innovation we take for granted.

The republican drones follow him around all day photographing him. They have drones equipped with special sensors that watch him through walls and read his thoughts. They are reprogramming him.

That's a good point. Someone else registered clintonemail.com (along with wjcoffice.com, and presidentclinton.com) with the Clintons' home in Chappaqua, New York as the contact address. Then all they had to do was convince a bunch of people like Sidney Blumenthal that it was her email and years later they could create a minor scandal for her, after she'd already lost in the primaries to Obama.

Common sense, the human brain?

I don't think that's what the police departments are looking for...

In case anyone still thinks that debates are all about choice and fairness instead of being manufactured by the 2-party system, Lessig is an actual candidate that is not allowed to debate while there is an extra lectern in case Biden (who is not a candidate) decides to stop by.

And, in case anyone is willing to blame CNN for that instead of the 2 parties, if the networks do not follow the rules set out by the 2 parties then they don't get to host the debate at all. The rules are not written by the debate host, they are written by the Commission On Presidential Debates, a corporation composed of the Democrat and Republican parties. They are the ones setting the rules. If there's a candidate that you've heard of or support that isn't in the debate, the COPD is the reason why.

When I refer to "COPD" I mean the commission, not the disease, even though the result of both is trouble breathing and they both may lead to death.

Err... no. It means pretty much precisely the opposite of that. "The news media" are trying to promote the "gun-free is more dangerous" myth.

When 10 people were shot in a Georgia barroom, only this Monday, you didn't see it mentioned that "the room is not a gun-free zone", did you?

Then why is it being mentioned now? The only reason to mention it is to provide ammunition, pun intended, to the pro-gun lobby, not the anti-gun one.

"News media" doesn't care about how the gun control argument plays out. Their agenda is to keep the argument going as long as possible - ideally, to prevent it from ever being "finally" resolved either way. Controversy generates eyeballs, and that's all they care about. The idea that "the media", as a whole, is pushing some gummint-sponsored big-Liberal agenda is pure paranoia generated by - wait for it - yet another media outlet trying to generate eyeballs.

$35k - $7500 in tax credits.

Just out of curiosity, were you bothered by the tax breaks that Escalade owners used to get?

The section 179 loophole? http://www.section179.org/sect...

http://abcnews.go.com/Business...

We had some folks in our neighborhood where the lady of the house had a "side business" and drove a Hummer or Escalade or Excursion, with a little magnetic sign placed on the rear of their "business" I never knew you needed an Excursion for a scented candle business - anyhow, it was always a scam, I think they just took the writeoffs, and folded the tent after a few years, then created another business.

Until the abuse became so bad they changed the laws.

Dust storms on Mars? You're reading too much into The Martian.

The big problem with engineering devices to work on Mars and the Moon is going to be weight. Weight (actually mass) is precious and expensive. You don't want to send any more than necessary. So by having to spec a device to work in both environments you're going to add mass at various points in time. For Mars stuff, you have a higher gravity - you can get by with lighter materials / structures on the moon. The moon doesn't have any atmosphere to speak of, so your aerobraking and parachute gear is pretty useless on the moon.

At this stage in our ability to do stuff in space, we aren't building a TIE fighter that can navigate to Denaba and destroy the Death Star.

Honestly, I never expected him to bring the country together like this. Both left wing and right wing media alike really have it in for him. It's every story, everywhere. I never saw them so together on something, not even in the days after 9/11; not like this.

Interesting times...

It's even worse.

Most of the post-debate polls have Trump increasing his lead over the other candidates.

Looking at some of the article post responses over the net (my own anecdotal evidence), it seems that people really don't mind all the things people complain about Trump. The general tone of response is "I agree he's $X, but at least he's not like those corrupt politicians".

And at least one super PAC has declared war on Trump.

All he has to do is choose a handful of issues that piss people off, and he'll be unstoppable.

Probably just saying that he'd fix the economy and give people jobs would do it.

UND and NDSU are, indeed, rivals. There's actually a trophy for the rivalry, called the Nickel Trophy. Haakenson did actually attend NDSU, as your quote says. However, I'm obviously wrong about his motivations here since the article says as much and I clearly just skimmed the article or didn't pick up on it due to lack of sleep. I'm a little embarrassed about being dead wrong and posting more than once about it.

It's a waste of public money to actually defend this through trademarks. It's doomed to failure. It's clever but doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of working.

Regarding the actual name, I'm not sure I agree with changing the name. The NCAA declared the name hostile, but it doesn't appear that they did so by contacting the actual Native American tribes portrayed. This caused quite a controversy with Florida State, who are called the Seminoles and actually have the support of the tribes. The NCAA told FSU to change the name without ever asking the tribes if they wanted the name changed. With regard to the UND situation, I don't really agree with changing the name. There are two tribes involved, the Spirit Lake tribe and the Standing Rock tribe. The Standing Rock tribe never officially voted on the matter, and only 8 percent of the people in Sioux County, where most of the reservation is located, voted when it was put to a public vote. It seems like the Standing Rock tribe really doesn't care if UND uses the name or not. However, the view of the Spirit Lake tribe was very different. They affirmed that they support the Fighting Sioux name and some of the members of the Spirit Lake tribe sued to try to get UND to keep the Fighting Sioux name. The lawsuit was ultimately dismissed.

In summary, one tribe doesn't really care about the nickname and, therefore, doesn't seem too offended. The other tribe involved seems passionate that the Fighting Sioux name ought to be kept. Yet the name was deemed hostile by the NCAA, who didn't bother to find out if it really offended anyone, and UND was threatened with sanctions if they didn't change the name. I think it's a terrible ploy to use trademarks to try to force UND to keep the Fighting Sioux name. That said, the Fighting Sioux name ought to stay. It seems like Haakenson's heart is in the right place, but it's a desperate attempt that's bound to failure.

My sources?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20120614/us-north-dakota-primary-fighting-sioux/
http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/7881221/judge-throws-tribes-lawsuit-north-dakota-fighting-sioux-name

There will be a vigorous discussion here on Thursday about what went on during the Republican debates (Wednesday, tomorrow).

Trump is completely against this outsourcing thing. He sees quite clearly the damage it does to our workforce, and how it's turning the country into a 3rd world nation.

Unlike the other candidates, he doesn't have to promise anything to super PACs just to get campaign donations. We're starting to see the fallout from this, as at least one supar-PAC has declared war on Donald Trump.

And for comparison, note that about 6 months before becoming president, [then] Senator Obama voted *for* telecom immunity. After he had promised to vote against it. And the measure didn't need his vote to pass - it already had enough support for that.

As a result several telecoms donated to his campaign and he ultimately won.

Keep this job-loss article in mind as you listen to the candidates on Wednesday. Most of them are career politicians, and we know how they actually voted on some of these issues.

If you want to compete with 30,000 new job hunters because your company outsourced to another country, feel free to vote for a politician.

Of course, your company will offer you 3 months of extra employment if you agree to train your replacement, so it's not all bad!

Increase H1B Visas (Senate) (source)

YEAs: 67 (D = 52, R = 14, I = 2)
NAYs: 32 (D = 0, R = 32, I = 0)

You do realize that all of those who have been shot recently were committing crimes at the time right?

Yep, even the 12 year old black kid that was shot was committing a crime. He removed the orange tip from a realistic looking toy gun, then was stupid enough to point it at the policemen who told him to drop it.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/video...

If you teach your kids to respect the police, they are more likely to not be shot by police.

Here is a news article about some children with third degree sunburn. Nasty stuff, one can die from sunburn.

You buy, ahem... sorry, donate to them AFTER they get elected in ways that create a retirement fund. http://abcnews.go.com/Business/campaign-finance-senators-house-members-campaign-funds-retire/story?id=10203316. As long as they hold office they can keep raising money and creating more loopholes for themselves. Then for whatever cause (some ugly photos, hand caught in a large and dirty cookie jar, or maybe the less likely Sudden Voter Sobriety Syndrome) they retire and play the other role, doling out the cash for parties unnamed.

Is Slashdot modding up posts that judge science by fictional TV shows?

No goalposts were set since that show wasn't making actual scientific predictions. It was a pseudo-reality TV disaster show. People were even encouraged to send in their own footage imagining future disasters caused by global warming. It was called "Earth 2100" because the depictions of the year 2015 were just setups for the disasters that would happen 100 years later in the show.

Here's a quote from the producer:
"this program was developed to show the worst-case scenario ... we are not saying that these events will happen..." According to the linked article, some of the scientists consulted on the show didn't think the scenarios were plausable even in 2100.

Let us not judge science by TV shows. If we did, I'd be complaining about the lack of robots with vacuum-cleaner hoses for arms. :-)

Modern society disagrees with you.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/20/tammy-cooper-texas-mom-arrested-kids-unsupervised-video_n_1900113.html

http://www.wtsp.com/story/news/local/2015/01/15/parents-charged-with-neglect-for-kids-playing-outside/21821723/

http://dailycaller.com/2014/07/29/mom-charged-with-felony-for-letting-son-walk-to-park-alone-video/

http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/free-range-parents-found-responsible-child-neglect-allowing/story?id=29363859

Sounds like Christie was inspired by last week's news from Austria.

Like so very many problems, this one becomes much simpler once you stop thinking of "them" as people.

Last year (?) a teenager was able to get over the perimeter fence and get on a plane. Later, they announced that they did not have the money to properly secure the fence. Depite this, exactly zero planes have been subject to terrorist attacks in the USA.

There was also this incident in May, where a 27 year old stole a plane and was talked down by air traffic control. If the security we have in place can't stop random incidents like the kid you mention or this guy in Vegas, what is it supposed to stop? I don't think it really has anything to do with terrorism, let alone the greater good.

Carburetors are evil! They tried to kill Harrison Ford (Han Solo) and should be banned

A moon base would be expensive, difficult, and wouldn't really help much for a trip to Mars. Landing on the moon first means you need to escape one more gravity well, more fuel, etc.

But you don't have to agree with me, some people have proposed a moon base on the way to Mars. Most of these proposals (including Mars One) have more to do with manipulating people on earth than they do about actually getting to Mars.

Many folks will think that you are making up this lack of IQ claim.

So here it a citation. Hiring discrimination as a matter of policy.

The police forces do not want people with "high" IQs (125 in he case cited) they only want people that are about average IQ. They claim that this is "to reduce turnover."

One of the worst examples was the kids school that Disney sued. Disney falsely claimed that by giving away or by charging minimal values, it opened them up to law suits from other locations demanding the same treatment. After it happened, Universal gave that school - for free - the use of their characters - Yogi Bear, Scooby Doo, Flintstones, etc. That happened in 1989.

Disney demanded that the unauthorized 5-foot-high painted figures of Disney characters on the walls of Very Important Babies Daycare, Good Godmother Daycare, and Temple Messianique (all in Hallandale, Florida) be removed for valid business reasons: infringements must be fought in order to keep trademarks intact; other Disney character licensees would have grounds to object if Disney provided inexpensive (or free) licenses to the centers (which are, after all, profit-making enterprises); and the use of Disney characters falsely suggested Disney's affiliation with the day care facilities.

Universal, still smarting from the early opening of Disney's studio-themed park... saw in the day care controversy a way to seize some publicity for themselves and give Disney a bad name in Florida as part of the bargain. Accordingly, Universal Studios Florida and Hanna-Barbera Productions offered the centers the use of characters from their own cartoons, such as Scooby-Doo, the Flintstones, the Jetsons, and Yogi Bear.

Daycare Center Murals

This was a clever publicity stunt for Universal, but I don't think it has ever shown that Universal really allowed their characters to be used without a license.

The day care centers in question all appear to be defunct. Hallandale, FL Child Care Centers

This is what happens when you aren't paying attention to the licensing of your product: Flintstones Bedrock City in Arizona on Sale for $2 Million, Brontosaurus Included

Because I love quirky roadside attractions, I hope someone does make this place nice again. If not, $5 is a fair price for some rabbit hunting.

I dunno, a lot of us natives love the creepy charm. I've only been once, but would love to go again were there less risk of tetanus.

Don't see why not - it's the legal norm in many countries (which as far as I can tell, aren't falling apart at the seams).

See Greece

If you RTFA, there's a link to another article that states their reasons.
http://abcnews.go.com/Internat...

Based on preliminary observations, Former NTSB Aviation Safety Director Tom Haueter says the part –- identified by Malaysia Airlines as a “flaperon,” a wing component used for balance –- appears to have a pristine leading edge. The rear section, called the trailing edge, appears to be missing.

“To me, it indicates that it was not a high speed, high angle impact, because if that had happened, the leading edge would be crushed,” Haueter, an ABC News contributor, said. “What I don’t see is a severe nose down impact.”

The condition of the debris suggests the flaps were down at the time of the crash, possibly indicating that “somebody's controlling the aircraft,” when it hit the water, said Haueter.

“The airplane wouldn’t have done that on its own,” he added. But “you’re trying to land or ditch the airplane – you’d have the flaps folded down.”

The deal includes Verizon's wireline assets in Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin as well as some assets in California.

china says the spratlys are on ancient chinese maps (as if that's justification, just mapping something). no chinese ever lived there

all that happened is someone drew a nine dotted line on a napkin 70 years ago:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

china plays the long game. they're an empire which has expanded and contracted for dozens of centuries. the area russia stole from them has been chinese many centuries more than russian

and is currently oveflowing with chinese:

http://abcnews.go.com/Internat...

remember how texas became part of the usa?

china wants resources

china is becoming imperialistic (they are boldly grabbing islands and you're claiming they aren't bold?)

outer manchuria was gobbled from them during the century of humiliation and unequal treaties

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

so the chinese are on the long view. they're just waiting. when the time comes, they will pounce, and no one will be able to do anything about it

outer manchuria is there's, they are certain of it, and when the time comes, it will be there's again. all it takes is a few more decades of russia continuing to rot economically, socially, and politically as it is, and china to continue to grow economically (and if they have social and political upheaval, then an ultranationalist demagogue may seize control and we'll see this happening sooner)

You're right, I didn't. I was remembering a picture of this Facebook drone for internet. It probably has a different name.

GMO? Bring them on. With reasonable safety testing. Because guess what: I like citrus fruits. However, citrus fruits are going extinct thanks to citrus greening.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

It's spreading worldwide, affecting Asia, Israel, and Florida (29% reduced production), and other places. There is no good way to cure citrus greening (you can give a tree antibiotics, but that only works for a while and costs a lot. I'm not a fan of abusing antibiotics in this way, either!)

However, there's a GMO technique for making citrus resistant to citrus greening. No natural citrus plant is resistant. Splicing in some genes from spinach does the trick:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

So pretty soon, it's going to be GMO citrus or no citrus.

Also, it turns out naturally occurring compounds in NATURAL citrus contributes to skin cancer:

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/s...

GMO citrus could have those compounds removed and be HEALTHIER (less likely to cause cancer) than natural citrus.

Bottom line, I'm for GMO citrus. It beats "no citrus". Also, it'd be nice if the GMO citrus was less risky for skin cancer too.

Most decidedly unnatural, and most decidedly better--with proper safety testing, I'm all for it.

Furthermore, a deadly fact: our industrial farming monoculture is increasingly vulnerable to this sort of worldwide wipe-out. The banana variety common in USA stores is also going extinct due to a disease. No replacement banana has been bred yet. Coffee and chocolate are going extinct, also due disease, with climate change contributing. There are credible threats to wheat. I'm very afraid that just to feed everyone we're going to need GMO to keep ahead of disease, and also to expand usable farmland via inserted genes for salt and drought tolerance.

I think before too much longer, for many people, it's going to be GMO food or no food.

--PeterM

companies use all sorts of tricks to hide stuff like that. Soup companies use yeast to put MSG in Soup without reporting it (it's a by product of the yeast, which serves no other purpose).

And recently there has been the phenomenon where companies try to hide things by using confusing nomenclature. E.g., "evaporated cane juice" in products with "no added sugar." Yeah -- "cane juice" -- it must be good for you, since they call it "juice"! Well, it's just another form of sugar... processed slightly differently, but still basically sucrose.

Basically, it's just a game... try to make things sound "natural" and "wholesome" when they're basically the same old crap. Same thing goes for "brown rice syrup" used as a sweetener in many things... basically sugar. But it's "brown rice"!! (Of course, brown rice also often has elevated levels of arsenic and other things... but hey, it's "natural" and "brown," so it must be good!)

You know how we found out sodium nitrate causes cancer?

Funny that you bring nitrates up, because that's one of my favorite examples of nonsense labeling. First, we get most of our nitrates from vegetables, so worrying about the small amounts in bacon and cured meats is probably not as big a deal as people make of it. (Yes, yes... cooking does other things to the nitrates and can make them bad, but proper curing also deactivates most of them too... we could argue this all day.)

But regardless of that, my favorite misleading labeling is all the "uncured" meats you see these days: "uncured bacon," "uncured salami," etc. Yeah, except these almost always contain huge amounts of "concentrated celery juice" (or sometimes another agent) which contains more nitrates than the standard salts used traditionally to cure meat. (And no -- to those natural foods wackos -- there's no evidence to support the idea that somehow those nitrates are better for you in the concentrated celery juice... basically because "natural" celery juice has unpredictable amounts of nitrates, they need to add more of them than they would for tradition curing salts.)

People just want stuff called "natural" with "juice" and "brown X" and "natural flavors" in it. It's almost all bogus nonsense, and often you end up paying a huge premium for something that could very well be worse for you.

Moral of the story: Labels frequently don't work to tell people what's actually better. Not saying we shouldn't try to use them, but companies will weasel their way around anything to appeal to customers.

(By the way, I'm all in favor of cooking for yourself with whole ingredients, using less "processed" foods, etc. But bogus "natural foods" nonsense is bogus nonsense.)