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Elevated radon levels can't be used to predict earthquakes in any way. A series of small earthquakes can not be used to predict a big earthquake. There were 2 comparable earthquakes in that region in the last 1000 years. The situation one day before the big quake was from a scientific point of view exactly the same as on every other day the last couple of thousand years.

And now your focus is on diminishing him. However, another more open-minded slashdotter pointed out this interesting read.

I wouldn't call that a theory; it's a hypothesis at best. There currently is no evidence to support it. I can see your argument that they might have overstepped their bounds here but it is unclear what they actually said and how they presented their hypothesis. Even if they presented their assessment poorly convicting them of manslaughter is way out of line.

Bad choice of wording on my part. The article doesn't even call it a hypothesis, it refers to it as "the suggestion". However, considering the source, it may have well carried the full weight with the public, that the word "theory" carries with scientists.

It is impossible with current knowledge to quantify the probability of an earthquake happening in the next 24 hours. What you claim was their job is simply impossible to do.

Wow, you just put words in my mouth there. Where do I say anything that would require them to predict earthquakes, or even the probability of an earthquake in a timeframe? If you think my pointing out the dissenting scientists applies, I'm merely highlighting how far they were willing to go to silence the resident who was making predictions, and how quickly they (appeared to have) backtracked after the fact. They effectively made a prediction through their "no danger" statements, which was foolish.

Risk assessment is not earthquake prediction. Perhaps you should endeavor to understand even the most basic ideas of risk assessment before you attempt debating this point again. Their focus, as is yours, was in the wrong place.

Mitt Romney wants to create world peace? By arming the Syrian rebels? Because that's never bit us in the ass. I'm sick and tired of this mentality that the United States needs to police the entire world and Romney keeps saying crap like "it's an honor that we didn't ask for but we have." What the hell?

Oh! But yeah, go ahead and arm Syrian rebels! Iran totally won't view that as an aggressive act! No, they'll sit by and watch that happen! And just say "Gee, I guess the people of Syria have spoken!" Try meeting with them then and using diplomacy to reduce their nuclear efforts!

That's not the whole story either. If you read your own link carefully, it points out that Giuliani predicted the quakes using a method that has never been proven scientifically and has had no peer reviewed papers published. In other words, he's a crackpot who just happened to get lucky;

If you read this article ( http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/05/laquila-earthquake-prediction-giampaolo-giuliani ) you will see that Giuliani was no crackpot - in fact he presented his research to an American conference. Just because someone does not have a PhD does not mean they cannot carry out scientific inquiry. All you need is brains and money. He has some financial backers. It seems, and this happens so often, that because he didn't have the right credentials his work was ignored in Italy and he wasn't allowed to publish. It wasn't until he came to the USA that he was given a fair hearing.

Back to the beginning: International law has for centuries stated that when extradition treaties are present that prosecution shall take place in the country where the victims are

Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries!

As I said, only when it suits the US it seems.

You must be one hell of a shot if you can snipe someone in America from a hill in Australia. Seriously, if you believe that the US or any other country should have this kind of power you must be crazy.

Go to the border of Canada then. Shoot someone in another country. Where are you tried?

How about in the USA? Someone from California goes to Texas and shoots across the border and hits someone from maine who lives in Oklahoma, who is taken to hospital in Coralardo? Classic sideshow bob scenario.

But that's not really what we're talking about are we. The US seems quite keen to lock away citizens of other countries i.e Gary McKinnon without feeling the need to return the favour. Under the terms of the US/UK treaty the US have managed to make it *exceedingly* one sided (Thanks for that Tony).

This is all about wielding power over weaker countries, and nothing about justice

If you read this

Trading in Google shares was suspended for two-and-a-half hours after the internet giant released its third-quarter results early by mistake.

you would have thought that it was Google who had released its third-quarter result, mistake or not.
 
But if you read this

Google blamed financial printing firm RR Donnelley for filing an early draft of the results ...

or this, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/oct/18/google-shares-suspend-email-22bn

Company results circulate internally for several days as they are being prepared for public release to strict timetables, normally under strict secrecy. Leaks of the figures are extremely rare, but on this occasion Google tersely blamed financial printers RR Donnelly for filing its draft third quarter results "without authorisation".

you would be getting a much clearer picture of what had transpired.
 
I don't know why BBC chooses to word its news article in such a misleading manner.
 
The difference in interpretation might be "minor" but the consequences would be huge, if people only get parts of the main picture.
 

Citation needed.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/21/richard-dawkins-magic-reality-review?INTCMP=SRCH

YourGeneticDestiny
21 September 2011 12:12PM
I worship him as a living god.

RedBarchetta
22 September 2011 12:04AM
khafre
Please go away and let the grown ups talk.

TheSmokingMan [referring to a religious person's post]
22 September 2011 1:04PM
Obviously some pond scum has yet to evolve at all.

Also, just scroll through this and any other thread on /. regarding religion, you'll find no shortage of folks who are of the opinion that followers of religion (other than their religion of atheism) shouldn't be allowed to breed, or should be shot, or any of a dozen other fucked up things you usually only expect to hear from religious fundamentalists.

A strawman erected by those he debate against as far as I can tell.

Then you're not seeing the forest for the trees... possibly because you are one?

Summary: Craig is a an evil person and an AW and his argument points have already been debunked when used by other religionists.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/20/richard-dawkins-william-lane-craig

Iran Sanctions Now Causing Food Insecurity, Mass Suffering

It may be worth reading this, iranian are now facing severe food shortages and lack of medicine, this will physically weaken the population and have an actual death toll. Who are we to impose such misery, and why is the EU doing this? It's a shame, and possibily an act of war. The population won't overthrow the regime either, because they're being weakened and growing dependant on the regime for their survival. These sanctions are absurd, abject and only useful if the US/Israel intend to attack the country thereafter.

Actually it has been suggested that the ramp up of chinese coal plants emitting sulphur has been offsetting the carbon from the rest of the world, as there has not been any detectable warming in the last 10 years or so.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jul/04/sulphur-pollution-china-coal-climate (Sorry for linking to the Guardian, but it's the only one I could find quickly.)

False. Counter Examples: Rush Limbaugh, Ultra Orthodox Men, Russian Official, and so on.

See here to see what MET scientists have to say about it. Of course there is no need to base your opinion on facts, or real data, but you might give it a try before you post to science debate.

In other news.. no global warming for 16 years now...

http://notrickszone.com/2012/10/16/luningvahrenholt-comment-on-hadcruts-16-years-of-no-warming-tough-times-ahead-for-climate-science/

Counterpoint.

In terms of "Google's contribution to the nation's economy" I hope the US is getting a better deal from Google than the UK is:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/apr/20/google-uk-tax-avoidance

Indeed.

It's the same mind-set as the anti-chick-a-fil protestors http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-news-blog/2012/aug/03/chick-fil-a-kiss-in and the anti-google protestors http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/15/10000-muslim-protesters-demonstrate-at-google-uk-hq-over-youtube-film/

both designed to shut down expression of opposing views.

Only the anti-chick-a-fil protesters are out numbered by the anti-google protesters and a lot less violent.

Like a typical American, you repeat ingrained patriotic rhetoric about the US being a beacon of "free speech". You do realize that you don't even have free speech in your own country, right? I have more than once seen people denied entry into your country because they expressed views that were unwelcome. Americans think they are a beacon of free speech, but their leaders are afraid of it.

For what it's worth, I've also seen the same thing happen here in Canada.

Then, we don't even have a proof that Iran has a program for nuclear weapons, we only know they are working on nuclear power.

Allow me to draw your attention to Section H of the IAEA director general's report dated 30 August 2012 on Iran's nuclear program, where it states, among other things: "39. The Annex to the Director General's November 2011 report (GOV/2011/65) provided a detailed analysis of the information available to the Agency, indicating that Iran has carried out activities that are relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device." In short, they have found nuclear weapons related activities. I will also drawn your attention to this, where at least seven activities related to nuclear weapons development carried out by Iran are noted. And last, but not least, the UN Secretary General is calling for Iran to come clean on its activities. So the bottom line is, yes, we have proof that Iran has been pursuing a nuclear weapon.

Why is it that USA should be the police of this world? Who gave them this authority?

I'm afraid you're badly confused on this point. It is European Union members that are taking the lead in trying to turn Iran around diplomatically, and the UN Security Council that is holding Iran accountable, as stated in my post above. (Among other things: "The UN Security Council has passed multiple resolutions demanding that Iran halt its uranium enrichment activities.")

My question to you is, how do you get this so wrong? How do you confuse Europe for the United States? Are you trying to claim that the United States is not equal to European powers? Why do you have this prejudice against the United States? Do you post without reading? (Silly me, this is Slashdot.)

The United States has acted in its interests, just like other powers. To pretend that the United States is unique in that is silly and against the facts.

Excuse me, who started it? That would be the Iranian government with their covert nuclear weapons program

I'm sorry, but this doesn't work with me.

I'm not surprised, but I'll work with you on this one - what did Stuxnet attack? Parts of the nuclear weapons program. If the nuclear weapons program didn't exist, would Stuxnet have exited? No, why would it - there would be nothing to attack. Nuclear program is action, Stuxnet is counter-action, AKA blowback. See, very simple when you think about it.

USA admittedly has enough nuclear weapons to destroy earth multiple times. And it's been more than half a century this happened. Why didn't Iran go after USA then?

That is a pretty silly attempt at moral equivalency. I'm amazed that you would try it. But I'll throw in a history lesson for free - the US and Iran were allies until 1979, and World War 2 ended in 1945. Just think about it.

Now, here are a few reasons why Europeans and others might have some concerns about Iran:

Iran Threatens To 'Freeze' Europe for Backing Sanctions (Would have sent you to the old Copt news site that hosted that as well, but for some reason it seems to be off-line. Ideas ?)
State Sponsors: Iran

You are badly misinformed, on more than one subject.

Allow me to draw you attention to Section H of the IAEA director general's report dated 30 August 2012 on Iran's nuclear program. In it you will see that Iran has carried out a number of weapons related activities, and that there are serious open questions. An earlier report referenced here found seven categories of activity aimed at nuclear weapons production, and rather damning ones at that. And if you can trouble yourself to read, the UN Secretary General is urging Iran to come clean.

Neither the US nor Israel want war with Iran as it would be both an enormous waste of resources, and a dangerous development for the world, including the economy. But the US, Israel, Europe, and most of Iran's neighbors want a nuclear armed Iran even less than war.

You are also wrong about the coup. It was a counter-coup that restored the Shaw to power - that would be the Shaw that was the lawful head of government in Iran prior to the coup that pushed him out and the counter-coup that restored him to power. So, your point there is also nonsense, particularly in light of the ambitions of the radical Shia who formed Iran's government.

And I'll throw in a bonus since you get so much else wrong: State Sponsors: Iran

For bonus points, I grew in Wells, ME, about 10km south of Kennebunk

I guess you grew up there some time ago.

just make prostitution legal (and regulated) like most of Europe.

A very long time ago.

Maybe it is better if the US doesn't legalize prostitution like the !most of Europe, and the part of Europe where it is legal but being moved against?

French minister for women seeks abolition of prostitution in Europe

France's minister for women is to organise a consultation on ways to abolish prostitution in France and Europe, she has told the Guardian.

Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, the high profile women's rights minister and government spokeswoman, said in an interview that she would be organising a conference of experts on how to contain the sex-trade and human-trafficking and was seeking to meet the home secretary Theresa May for input from the UK.

"Since the 19th century and the role of [the Victorian feminist] Josephine Butler, Britain and France have been the core countries in the international mobilisation against prostitution. I really hope that these common roots are still alive," she said. She wanted a meeting with May on how Britain and France approach prostitution and human-trafficking. In France prostitution is not illegal, but activities around it are. Brothels were outlawed in 1946 and pimping is illegal.

In 2003 a controversial law against soliciting was introduced by Nicolas Sarkozy, then interior minister, making it illegal to stand in a public place known for prostitution dressed in revealing clothes.

Last year, the French parliament adopted a resolution on the abolition of prostitution saying its objective was a "society without prostitution".

The consultation would consider recommendations made last year by a cross-party commission of French MPs that it should be illegal to pay for sex. The MPs had suggested all clients of sex workers, meaning anyone who buys sex from any kind of prostitute, would face prison and a fine. Clients of sex-workers face prison in a handful of European countries, including Sweden, Norway and Iceland.

Spain, the world capital of prostitution?
In Spain, Women Enslaved by a Boom in Brothel Tourism

LA JONQUERA, Spain — She had expected a job in a hotel. But when Valentina arrived here two months ago from Romania, the man who helped her get here — a man she had considered her boyfriend — made it clear that the job was on the side of the road.

He threatened to beat her and to kill her children if she did not comply. And so she stood near a roundabout recently, her hair in a greasy ponytail, charging $40 for intercourse, $27 for oral sex.

“For me, life is finished,” she said later that evening, tears running down her face. “I will never forget that I have done this.”

La Jonquera used to be a quiet border town where truckers rested and the French came looking for a deal on hand-painted pottery and leather goods. But these days, prostitution is big business here, as it is elsewhere in Spain, where it is essentially legal.

While the rest of Spain’s economy may be struggling, experts say that prostitution — almost all of it involving the ruthless trafficking of foreign women — is booming, exploding into public view in small towns and big cities. The police recently rescued a 19-year-old Romanian woman from traffickers who had tattooed on her wrist a bar code and the amount she still owed them: more than $2,500.

In the past, most c

You are making a point about apostasy, which is fair enough, but most of the muslims have no problem with my not believing in Allah, because I am not and have never been a muslim.

And it's great that you were born so lucky. If your parents were muslim and you wanted to not believe, 33% of the UK's muslim would want you dead.

Not that your comment is even accurate on sharia. Muslims do not have any problem at all with not believing in allah. Not for muslims, not for non-muslims. However they will want to kill you for
1) any perceived insult to "the prophet" (insult allah all you want, another indication that islam's "god" is just a cruel stupid little medieval dictator)
2) any perceived insult to muslims as a group
3) not paying for their war on non-muslims (yes, you read that right. Also known as jizya)

Please note that this is not an exhaustive list. In particular, once they demanded any non-muslim give up their firstborn son in a system called "devshirme". Or just start a genocide for no reason in particular. Happened more than 100 times in muslim history, including by the paedophile prophet himself, both on muslims and infidels for mostly imaginary reasons, so please don't claim this is somehow not part of islam.

The problem with your safety claims is that they only consider violent, on-road death. That's not that large a risk of death for most people, cyclists or not. In practice, we die of strokes, heart attacks, cancer, and the cumulative effects of chronic conditions like diabetes and failing circulation -- all of which are made (much) worse by lack of exercise. When you look at all causes of death (and not just the eye-catching ones), even when adjusted for age, weight, and other risk factors, choosing to drive a car to work (in Denmark) leads to a 39% higher mortality rate. In another country (England) with road (un)safety closer to ours, the estimate is that for someone choosing to ride a bike in "moderate" amounts (to work, around town, so in the 30-100 mile/week range), each expected year of life lost to a bicycle crash is paid back 10-20x by years gained from improved health.

A citation for your deaths-per-mile comparison would be good. The only estimate I've seen was done years ago by someone at Failure Analysis Associates (and attempts to further vet the numbers have been fruitless) and it was that per-hour (not mile) cycling and driving were about equivalent in risk. That's going to give you 2-3x for cycling per mile, with the numbers obviously skewed by special infrastructure designed for the safe distance travel by cars (interstate highways) and no infrastructure of similar quality anywhere for bicycles in this country (do you "share" your road with roller-bladers, dog walkers, and parents with baby-joggers 2-abreast?)

If your bike commute is that slow, yet you want it to be a workout, you're doing it wrong. My doctor has no complaints. I've ripped handlebars in half (twice) and split firewood with an ax, so somehow the upper body is getting something from somewhere.

... If you believe in evolution, you can't be in favour of homosexuality, or the ducks will get you in the end.

Ducks, homosexuality and evolution. Well put. Here's an article that also has homosexuality and ducks. And some necrophilia...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2005/mar/08/highereducation.research

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/07/reading-fiction-empathy-study

Reading books also can expose you to many ideas, models, and world views that you might not otherwise encounter. Learning a new world view can radically change your personality and belief systems. Case in point; Young Christians learning about Atheism.

cej102937

Oh.. I don't know the first passed health care reform in almost 100 years.

Oh, except that's a total lie. First, we have had health care reform before: Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, ADA, FMLA. Second, and more importantly, what Obama signed was not health care reform. It was health insurance reform. When the problem is the lack of affordable care and a for-profit health insurance industry jacking up rates, that is no small distinction.

Ended Don't Ask Don't Tell.

Another lie. Congress passed a bill ending the codification of DADT, all Obama did was sign it. Three more problems with this:

1) Obama could have halted discharges until legislation was passed with the stroke of a pen, by issuing a stop loss order
2) Meaning over a thousand gay personnel had their lives and careers destroyed while Obama fiddle-farted around telling Congress not to rush repeal
3) The anti-discriminatory language that Obama opposed was removed from the bill, meaning that President Palin is free to go back to discharging gays with a stroke of her pen

Restarted the hunt for and killed Osama bin Laden

Yes, killed an unarmed old man suffering from failing kidneys while he was on the ground. So much easier to avoid the embarrassment of a trial where the defense could present evidence of CIA shenanigans or argue that the U.S. had long been making war on muslims by overthrowing their governments or killing half a million children with sanctions.

Oh, and giving third world paranoia legitimacy about the "real" purpose of vaccination programs by running a fake one to try and find Bin Laddin. Meaning thousands of children will die and another lifetime will pass before we have a chance of eradicating polio.

Smashing, yea capitalism!

He has pretty much done the majority of the items he promised to do on election day.

On what planet? Restoring rights and liberties: promise broken. Ending DADT and DOMA: promise broken (see above). Passing the EFCA: promise broken. No more dumb foreign wars: promise broken. Ending the Bush Tax Cuts: promise broken. Protecting whistleblowers: promise broken, and then some - he's prosecuted more than all previous presidents combined. Backing off state-based medical marijuana: not only has he broken that promise, he's raided 13 times as many dispensaries in thee years than Bush did in eight.

Maybe I'm just young, but most of my adult life has been under Bush, and now Obama. Bush seemed to mostly screw things up. Obama seems to mostly push things in a better direction.

Pushing for cuts to Social Security and Medicare is pushing the country in a better direction? Prosecuting fewer bankers than Bush is pushing the country in a better direction? Arranging the largest transfer of wealth in the history of the planet - from the poor to the rich - with bank bailouts is pushing the country in a better direction?

Unemployment is far higher than when Bush was in office, debt is higher than Bush was in office, wealth inequality is higher than Bush was in office, and we are in more foreign wars than when Bush was in office. Yes, much of this is due to Obama's inheritance of Bush Administration policies.

Policies Obama has chosen to continue.

You know nothing of what you speak. The Taliban just shoot the girls or the headmasters.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/25/taliban-kill-head-girls-school

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-taliban-advances-if-we-now-kill-schoolgirls-you-shouldn-t-be-surprised-a-627004.html

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/10/10/world/asia/pakistan-teen-activist-attack/index.html

So go ahead, try taking taxes from the Taliban to pay for girl schools...

I very much doubt he would object to government surveillance of people in direct contact with Al Qaida.

Greenwald just had a nice comment about that bipartisan sophistry.

It's not and never has been about tapping Al Queda, but you knew that already. It's about tapping people the government doesn't even bother to claim are up to no good, since FISA laws already allowed for secret, retroactive warrants.

China is the most dangerous country in the world today. And the information about how horrible the Chinese, despite them getting MUCH worse given the economic situation, the information flow has been nearly shut down since 2007 timeframe. There were big 60 minutes type exposes in 2007 but since then the Police State has seen that information regarding our forced consumption of Chinese Walmart Plastic with Federal Reserve Notes remains in place.

China tires bad:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118278927863547228.html

The organizing committee of Beijingâ(TM)s Olympic games has promised to investigate charges that official merchandise is being manufactured using child labor.

The PRC Chinese poison dog food:
http://www.themoneytimes.com/articles/20070523/chinese_protein_export_scandal-id-104033.html

The PRC Chinese poison toothpaste:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/02/us/02toothpaste.html?ex=1181620800&en=d26dab8b2bd85303&ei=5070

The PRC Chinese poison Children's Toys:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070614/thomas_recall_070614/20070614?hub=CTVNewsAt11
http://blogs.eastbayexpress.com/92510/2007/06/thomas_why_hath_thou_forsaken.php

Chinese Seafood Detained for Safety
http://www.topix.com/forum/food/TFSGN6836LFM2QFV7

Melamine put into milk formula, dog food, etc.
http://www.treehugger.com/green-food/got-melamine-53000-chinese-children-did-in-their-milk.html

- Cow milk so inundated with antibiotics you can not make Yogurt from it.

- Pigs force-fed waste water.

- Lard made from separating fats from sewage.

Made in China: tainted food, fake drugs and dodgy paint
http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,2118920,00.html

China Jails 2 Protestant Church Leaders
http://www.nysun.com/foreign/china-jails-two-protestant-leaders/58150/

The PRC Chinese government has murdered countless people:
"DEATH BY GOVERNMENT: GENOCIDE AND MASS MURDER"
http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/NOTE1.HTM
http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.TAB1.GIF
http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.FIG1.GIF

Given modern industrial process and productivity, I don't even see how using Chinese slave labor saves that much in the face of having to crate up and ship the goods from china to consuming markets.

The bean counters saved maybe 10% at best making product, and now with the price of shipping goods going up due to petrol, they are probably paying more to have it made in China.

The only real reason it may never come back to the US is a host of states (NY, CA) and The Fedzilla / US government that have a long list of anti-business laws making a return to the US difficult.

You want Made in the USA? Tell state and federal congress to stop doing everything to drive up the cost of business compared to China and India (the only two competitors that matter); stop buying Chinese crap where possible.

Slave Labor rented at a PREMIUM with low quality results is still apparently cheaper than coming back her

You sure are snarky for someone who is seemingly incapable of using a search engine.

Google: "site:techdirt.com apple arbitrary" They've done a fairly thorough job of documenting Apple's arbitrary policies. Of course, Apple is free to be as arbitrary as they wish, as are the fanboys free to defend them blindly (thanks for your shining example!). And the rest of us are free to criticize their silly approach and enjoy a superior product.

For the lazy ones:
http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2009/04/24/crudebox-becomes-prudebox-to-make-it-into-the-app-store/
http://almerica.blogspot.ca/2008/09/podcaster-rejeceted-because-it.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10042127-2.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
http://forum.nin.com/bb/read.php?59,651569
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/91508-Apple-Blocks-Obscene-Newsreader-App
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/may/21/apple-iphone
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2008/09/apple-imposes-n/
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/36946/Interview_Molleindustria_On_Phone_Storys_Objectionable_Message.php

I await your apology with bated breath.

[citation needed]

From a quick google: he admitted that he posted comments on his own facebook page.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/oct/08/april-jones-matthew-woods-jailed

do you have anything showing he posted to the support page?

Does anyone have a reliable reference for that?

The man has now been jailed after pleading guilty: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/oct/08/april-jones-teenager-jailed-facebook

Someone pointed out further up:

"That's apparently not what happened. This guy posted the joke on his own wall; someone else took a screen grab of it and posted it on the April Jones page."

so no, he didn't write that joke on the Facebook page run by the people trying to find the little girl.

someone else did but with a screenshot of his personal page.

In that case the OP would presumably say the person who took the screenshot needs therapy (or broken legs)

As usual the police got the wrong guy. They did this because of intense media pressure. You'd think after the Daley debacle, and the slapping of the police over it, they'd be more useful.

However, I really don't see the difference between this and the "innocence of muslims".

Every police officer arresting some twat on facebook is one less looking for a 5 year old girl.

... having a measurable positive effect on the organism doing the eating.

If such an effect were large, it would be easy to find in, say, rat studies, and easily replicable. Studies like that would probably be easy to find with a casual web search of the literature. My google-fu is above average, and the last time I looked, all I found was this, which was inconclusive, funded by an organic food promotion group, and unreplicated.

So, I suspect any health benefit of organic food is likely very small.

It's dumb to tax pollution as a punitive measure, or to encourage/discourage the use of certain technologies or behaviors, or to raise general revenue.
It's smart to tax pollution to offset the public-born costs of the thing which is taxed.

That's crazy talk!
Luckily, elected representatives everywhere know the purpose of taxation is to raise revenue for boondoggles, pork barrel projects, bribery, civil service bloat, and other wastrel activities.

Just look at the taxes on fuel in Europe as an example. The high taxes are ostensibly to promote economy, but the more economical vehicles become, the higher the taxes must be. It's the tax revenue that must be preserved.

Paulo "Pirate" Coelho.

Abolishing copyright and demand free work is a false dichotomy.

Study finds pirates 10 times more likely to buy music

I know that some people find this amazing, but people actually pay for things for reasons besides being The Law.

I suppose the terrorists are going to have to plant their bombs without boarding the plane, now. Oh, wait! They already figured that out.

is the psychological technical term for what often happens I believe...

The classic deindividuation experiment concerned American children at Halloween. Trick-or-treaters were invited to take sweets left in the hall of a house on a table on which there was also a sum of money. When children arrived singly, and not wearing masks, only 8% of them stole any of the money. When they were in larger groups, with their identities concealed by fancy dress, that number rose to 80%. The combination of a faceless crowd and personal anonymity provoked individuals into breaking rules that under "normal" circumstances they would not have considered.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jul/24/internet-anonymity-trolling-tim-adams
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deindividuation

In addition, the long-term trend for misconduct was on the up: in 1976 there were only three retractions for misconduct out of 309,800 papers (0.00097%) whereas there were 83 retractions for misconduct out of 867,700 papers at a recent peak in 2007 (0.0096%).

Percentage-wise, we're talking about a very small number of papers. They quote one of the authors:

"The better the counterfeit, the less likely you are to find it – whatever we show, it is an underestimate," said Arturo Casadevall, professor of microbiology, immunology and medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and an author on the study.

While this is indeed true... even if the true number of misconduct cases is ten-fold what they measured, it's still a small fraction of the literature. Of course, any number of fraudulent papers is cause for concern (and we should work to remedy the situation); but these results should not cause us to call into question the majority of published science. In fact it points towards the vast majority of papers surviving scrutiny.

The bikes shouldn't be ON the road in the first place.

I don't even know when or how Bikes became a religion but people are defending their right to bicycle in areas designed for motorized traffic and -nothing- else (because when they did the town planning in a lot of these towns, rural areas, etc, 30-40 years ago they couldn't imagine any idiots would be bicycling ON THE DAMN ROAD)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/18/black-hawk-colorado-bans-cyclists

There are "Bicycle advocacy groups" defending a right no one ever had in the first damn place. Towns are perfectly within their rights to ban bicycles on certain streets, or even in the entirety of the town. There are many towns with a LARGE contingency who want the practice of bicycling on vehicle-trafficked streets wherein no bicycle lanes exist banned entirely. Unfortunately there are a very loud vocal minority that seem bent on stopping this.

And if you know a a 3D printer than can actually manufacture drugs, please provide a link.

Here ya go. :-)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/jul/21/chemputer-that-prints-out-drugs

Riiiiight. Because Abu Hamza has only one country which has to approve his extradition (instead of two in the case of Assange), has few fans (compared to Assange, who according to polls has on the order of hundreds of millions), was trying to *set up terrorist training camps inside the US* (instead of leaking videos and cables), has no "get out of extradition free" card from being charged with an intelligence-related crime (Swedish law bans extradition for intelligence matters), and on and on... and he's *still* in the UK. He was arrested in 2004, and he's *still* not extradited. And the US has already not only promised no death penalty, no abuse, no guantanamo, they even had to promise not to send him to a Supermax prison. And he's still not sent. And we're supposed to worry about Julian F'ing Assange and his paranoid fantasyland? Especially after this?

Anyway, hey, remember way back when Ghandi was charged with raping someone, and he went and hid in an embassy? Oh, that's right, he went to f'ing jail for actual political charges. Well, remember when Mandela was charged with raping someone, and he went and hid in an embassy? Oh, that's right, he went to f'ing jail for actual political charges. But no, Assange walks around like he's a hero, bragging about how much of a hero he is, when the actual felony he's facing is that he waited until a girl (SW) was asleep in order to F' her unprotected because she wouldn't let him do it while awake. And the crazy thing is he hardly even denies the charges. His legal team admits that she had been refusing unprotected sex the night before (it'd be hard not to, they have a condom with DNA matching the DNA sample from inside her, and she talked with friends that night talking about how he kept trying to F' her without protection and how she was getting really frustrated with it). Even the guy's own legal team was not challenging the fact that they "found Mr Assange's sexual behaviour in these encounters disreputable, discourteous, disturbing or even pushing towards the boundaries of what they were comfortable with" His team claims only that she woke up, was fully conscious, and then consented to sex. Which is just patently absurd, given that she had been just telling people about how upset she was about him trying to have unprotected sex with her, and she has a "paper trail" a mile long of being afraid of pregnancy and STDs, to the point where her previous boyfriend of 2 1/2 years testified that not only did she not once allow unprotected sex (it was "unthinkable" to her), but she even had him get STD tested before *protected* sex. So she woke up in the middle of the night, after complaining repeatedly about him trying to violate a lifelong principle, was fully conscious, and decided to change her views on unprotected sex? *Really*?

Assange has appealed the case in five separate courts and lost all of them: three in the UK, including the UK supreme court, and two in Sweden (the Svea court hearings), the latter two specifically focusing on the forensic evidence and interviews. But no, a random assange-fan echo chamber sourcing most of its info from Assange's admitted liar lawyer is justice, while five separate actual courts in first-world nations are railroading, right?

Just pathetic. Assange is dodging some serious F'ing charges here, and it's horrible to see so many people cheering on the majorly

Riiiiight. Because Abu Hamza has only one country which has to approve his extradition (instead of two in the case of Assange), has few fans (compared to Assange, who according to polls has on the order of hundreds of millions), was trying to *set up terrorist training camps inside the US* (instead of leaking videos and cables), has no "get out of extradition free" card from being charged with an intelligence-related crime (Swedish law bans extradition for intelligence matters), and on and on... and he's *still* in the UK. He was arrested in 2004, and he's *still* not extradited. And the US has already not only promised no death penalty, no abuse, no guantanamo, they even had to promise not to send him to a Supermax prison. And he's still not sent. And we're supposed to worry about Julian F'ing Assange and his paranoid fantasyland? Especially after this?

Anyway, hey, remember way back when Ghandi was charged with raping someone, and he went and hid in an embassy? Oh, that's right, he went to f'ing jail for actual political charges. Well, remember when Mandela was charged with raping someone, and he went and hid in an embassy? Oh, that's right, he went to f'ing jail for actual political charges. But no, Assange walks around like he's a hero, bragging about how much of a hero he is, when the actual felony he's facing is that he waited until a girl (SW) was asleep in order to F' her unprotected because she wouldn't let him do it while awake. And the crazy thing is he hardly even denies the charges. His legal team admits that she had been refusing unprotected sex the night before (it'd be hard not to, they have a condom with DNA matching the DNA sample from inside her, and she talked with friends that night talking about how he kept trying to F' her without protection and how she was getting really frustrated with it). Even the guy's own legal team was not challenging the fact that they "found Mr Assange's sexual behaviour in these encounters disreputable, discourteous, disturbing or even pushing towards the boundaries of what they were comfortable with" His team claims only that she woke up, was fully conscious, and then consented to sex. Which is just patently absurd, given that she had been just telling people about how upset she was about him trying to have unprotected sex with her, and she has a "paper trail" a mile long of being afraid of pregnancy and STDs, to the point where her previous boyfriend of 2 1/2 years testified that not only did she not once allow unprotected sex (it was "unthinkable" to her), but she even had him get STD tested before *protected* sex. So she woke up in the middle of the night, after complaining repeatedly about him trying to violate a lifelong principle, was fully conscious, and decided to change her views on unprotected sex? *Really*?

Assange has appealed the case in five separate courts and lost all of them: three in the UK, including the UK supreme court, and two in Sweden (the Svea court hearings), the latter two specifically focusing on the forensic evidence and interviews. But no, a random assange-fan echo chamber sourcing most of its info from Assange's admitted liar lawyer is justice, while five separate actual courts in first-world nations are railroading, right?

Just pathetic. Assange is dodging some serious F'ing charges here, and it's horrible to see so many people cheering on the majorly

Riiiiight. Because Abu Hamza has only one country which has to approve his extradition (instead of two in the case of Assange), has few fans (compared to Assange, who according to polls has on the order of hundreds of millions), was trying to *set up terrorist training camps inside the US* (instead of leaking videos and cables), has no "get out of extradition free" card from being charged with an intelligence-related crime (Swedish law bans extradition for intelligence matters), and on and on... and he's *still* in the UK. He was arrested in 2004, and he's *still* not extradited. And the US has already not only promised no death penalty, no abuse, no guantanamo, they even had to promise not to send him to a Supermax prison. And he's still not sent. And we're supposed to worry about Julian F'ing Assange and his paranoid fantasyland? Especially after this?

Anyway, hey, remember way back when Ghandi was charged with raping someone, and he went and hid in an embassy? Oh, that's right, he went to f'ing jail for actual political charges. Well, remember when Mandela was charged with raping someone, and he went and hid in an embassy? Oh, that's right, he went to f'ing jail for actual political charges. But no, Assange walks around like he's a hero, bragging about how much of a hero he is, when the actual felony he's facing is that he waited until a girl (SW) was asleep in order to F' her unprotected because she wouldn't let him do it while awake. And the crazy thing is he hardly even denies the charges. His legal team admits that she had been refusing unprotected sex the night before (it'd be hard not to, they have a condom with DNA matching the DNA sample from inside her, and she talked with friends that night talking about how he kept trying to F' her without protection and how she was getting really frustrated with it). Even the guy's own legal team was not challenging the fact that they "found Mr Assange's sexual behaviour in these encounters disreputable, discourteous, disturbing or even pushing towards the boundaries of what they were comfortable with" His team claims only that she woke up, was fully conscious, and then consented to sex. Which is just patently absurd, given that she had been just telling people about how upset she was about him trying to have unprotected sex with her, and she has a "paper trail" a mile long of being afraid of pregnancy and STDs, to the point where her previous boyfriend of 2 1/2 years testified that not only did she not once allow unprotected sex (it was "unthinkable" to her), but she even had him get STD tested before *protected* sex. So she woke up in the middle of the night, after complaining repeatedly about him trying to violate a lifelong principle, was fully conscious, and decided to change her views on unprotected sex? *Really*?

Assange has appealed the case in five separate courts and lost all of them: three in the UK, including the UK supreme court, and two in Sweden (the Svea court hearings), the latter two specifically focusing on the forensic evidence and interviews. But no, a random assange-fan echo chamber sourcing most of its info from Assange's admitted liar lawyer is justice, while five separate actual courts in first-world nations are railroading, right?

Just pathetic. Assange is dodging some serious F'ing charges here, and it's horrible to see so many people cheering on the majorly

So? Bain Capital invests in companies that employ people overseas. Lots of companies do that. Do you invest in Apple? How about Intel or AMD? Do you own an HTC phone, or a smart phone at all? Even the US Government has invests in companies that close down US plants to open them up overseas. Obama "invested" in GM. GM has closed down plants in the US to open new ones in Mexico and other places overseas. Do you think that Obama "prefers to ship jobs off overseas than to invest in America."? It's the same thing, isn't it? Well, except that Obama is using American tax dollars to do it against our will. Bain used freely invested money from investors

The difference is that Apple's primary focus is not shipping companies overseas. The company that Bain invested in specializes in offshoring.

But the point is that you said "their own candidate for president prefers to ship jobs off overseas than to invest in America", which is something you can't back up because it's not true. You WANT to believe it so bad that you are actively silencing the the logic portion of your brain that is screaming, "why would Romney WANT to give American jobs to overseas workers? That doesn't make sense". It's sad when you have to lie to yourself to keep justify your beliefs.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/aug/10/illinois-workers-bain-outsourcing

From the article:

"This company is competitive globally. They make a profit here. But Bain Capital decided to squeeze it a little further. That is not what capitalism is meant to be about," said Freeport mayor George Gaulrapp, 52, pictured.

So, yes, it seems to me that Romey prefers overseas jobs.

Well there is all the damage and dead bodies that resulted from throwing the info out there.

The ones that exist only in the minds of authoritarian tools full of poutrage? Nobody has been able to point to a single person being harmed by the release of the cables. As opposed to, you know, the millions who have either died or forced from their homes from America's false wars of choice.

But you're not calling for accountability for actual suffering from actual millions of people. Says a lot about your real priorities and motives....

You may be correct that the legal papers in the case and the extradition are all legit, with dotted Is and crossed Ts, but how likely is it that international extradition proceedings would be started against a man for having consensual sex that was turned out to be a little too agressive, or without a condom? To be sure it sounds like Assange was irresponsible, but it's hard to imagine that these proceedings would have started without political motives. Have you seen Naomi Wolf's take on it?

See also

You're right that the "enemy of state" thing is overstated and hyperbolic (an eyeball grabber - "made you look!") but there is no doubt that some U.S. mucky-mucks are extremely pissed at WikiLeaks. I bet some of them would be happy to punish Assange by any means necessary, to discourage anyone else from ever leaking classified information. Collateral murder is not the kind of thing you want to be public.

Not to mention that they take Assange's paranoid fantasies about reextradition at face value (that would probably be the most complicated way to get Assange to the United states one could possibly devise, involving three first-world judicial sytems and two first-world national governments, all of which must agree to extradite him, all of which are bound by law not to extradite where there's a risk of human rights abuses or the death penalty, two of which also with the restriction of no extraditions for intelligence or military mattersm, and one (the ECHR) of which whose only purpose it is to prevent political prosecutions and human rights abuses, a task it embraces with what's often criticized as too much zeal) - and the "evidence" for the fantasy being leaks about something from two years ago, with no mention that last year another leak suggested that the case fell apart.

Typical garbage reporting about the Assange case. At least it's not as bad as the "no DNA" story, which was actually precisely the opposite of what the report they were claiming to cite said (that they did find something, that the initial test was inconclusive, that there was nothing suspicious about the initial test being inconclusive, that they're sending it in for more sensitive testing - and then after the report, the results were that they found mtDNA), as well as including some outright slander for good measure (that the victim said the sex was consensual).

Being a Brazilian living in Europe since 2005, my opinion is yes, there is some inefficiency but that is not the problem. France and Germany also have corruption and all the inefficiency you want. I see Brazil as an exploited country which still has chains tying it to serve more developed countries.

The pervasive attitude is, "bin Laden, a hero, was murdered, and by the very people that made him a hero."

Yep. That's the attitude. It has nothing to do with things like
  "The US practice of striking one area multiple times, and evidence that it has killed rescuers, makes both community members and humanitarian workers afraid or unwilling to assist injured victims."

because that's a minor detail no one would worry about.

Giving succor to your enemy is a good way to also become your enemy. This is hardly a new thing.

No, not even close. The highest possible level of excitement your nieces/nephews are ever going to have is the excitement of adventure, accomplishment, creation and invention, over coming a great challenge, seeking a great treasure and earning the right to hold it. Junk food doesn't even contain the most important thing that any meal should have and that is a sense of family, bonding, eating, loving, nourishing bodies and souls. That's why food is love. That's why fast food is predigested feces. If you aren't enjoying what you eat with people that you love, you are missing 98% of the point of putting food in your face. We need to bring back civilization, and dining is one of the oldest and most important civil expressions, the culinary arts are unique to each culture, and yet the same pattern abound. It is critically human to eat well, and share the experience with others. By the way, conversation about obesity are so twisted up in this culture. Our sense of what is beautiful is so messed up its disgusting. Here's a great revelation. Bon Appetit.