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I was (still am) irritated that companies in the west quite frequently make money by selling arms to dictatorships that use those arms to stay in power against the wishes of the people who live under their rule. Companies like BAe Systems make huge profits by selling to countries like Indonesia who have an appalling human rights record. I know you can always make the argument that if we don't someone else will but that still doesn't make it any less morally wrong.

I am especially against schemes like the Export Credit Guarantee Department which underwrite these sales so that if the people in said country manage to oust the dictator from power before payment has been made then British taxpayers money is used to pay the bill and then the cost (plus interest) is added to the countries national debt.

In this manner the people who get rid of the dictator end up paying for the weapons that were used to suppress them. I think that if a western company is willing to do business with a country that is on the brink of collapse it should do so at its own risk.

One example is various companies supplying Saddam Hussein with arms (and the Falluja 2 chemical weapons plant) shortly before he invaded Kuwait.

Here are some links:
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/51/040.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,908426,00.html

Although these links only mention British involvement President Reagan was also a supporter of Saddam when he was fighting Iran so American companies were also involved. Here is an interesting photo of Saddam and Reagan shaking hands, not that it proves anything by itself:

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/

Here are some other random links:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A52241-2002Dec29?language=printer
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE0DC123DF936A35751C0A963958260
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/12/31/world/main534798.shtml

To add some perspective to this I would recommend reading this edited extract from the book "The Backroom Boys" called Masters of their universe about the development of Elite. It is a pretty decent explanation of how the battle with mediocrity already existed in the early days of PCs, but also how outstanding efforts burst through from time to time and perhaps do enough to rescue their generation? You certainly don't have go all the way back to pong to find outstanding games.

Generally, sensitive government information is already physically shielded from the Internet - they simply don't connect their computers to it. I have some friends who don't even feel comfortable telling me what their wives' jobs are, and I doubt it's anything really cool that deserves to be secret. As far as I can tell, government security is working quite well. Heck, I can't even find anyone who wants to talk about that secret hypersonic plane I'm pretty sure we built. You'd think there'd be be nothing more fun to speculate about around the water cooler... not so. I just want to see the damned thing. It seems that the government realizes the basic truth of information security: the weakness is individuals, not technology (gee, how advanced is not connecting to the net?). I'm quite impressed at how universally government employees have been trained who access even potentially sensitive information. However, the vast majority of government employees I deal with are really smart... the stupid ones most be out there.

No, P2P file sharing is less of a threat than Google. Post something on your blog, and within a month, the whole world knows. A stupid government employee with access to both valuable secrets and Myspace could be quite dangerous. Anyway, I feel we currently err on the side of paranoia. 9/11, the Iraq war, and Bush's general preference for lack of oversight have to a silly explosion in classified government secrets.

Basically you can't patent a natural genetic variant you discover and then prevent people from using it as breeding stock.

Actually corporations something like this. Western companies constantly seek out plants and chemical constituents they can patent. This is getting to be a big deal with some aboriginal or native people, they share their knowledge with someone then that person comes and applies for a patent. Biopiracy is getting to be a big issue: "The new piracy: how West 'steals' Africa's plants"

The poster's may not have been verbatim charges against Monsanto, but read here, here, here, here, here and here. And if that's not enough, add this and this.

Let's not forget Terminator Seeds, Agent Orange and Bovine Growth Hormone. Sure, it could all be hyperbolic, paranoid, general left-wing nutiness, but I think there's a kernel of truth in there somewhere.

There was an interesting exhibition on at a London gallery recently with an 18th century 'copy' of the Mona Lisa. Because it was painted using a different method (no thick layer of varnish etc) the colours survived much better. So, if it was an accurate copy, might give a good insight into how the original really looked before it dulled. Link. This shows that the original could have been much brighter, which changes a lot of the feel of the piece.

Let's see which few these are:
We have Catholocism:

• Archbishop Denounces Evolution as 'Unguided'
• Pope prepares to embrace theory of intelligent design

• Tennessee Evolution Statutes
• Anti-Evolution and the Law

I think the mistake your making though is to assume that most people think about religion at all. So you picked up a few philosophy books, yeah yeah, I got that feather in my cap too. I've even sat down at the table, drank coffee, and chit chat'd philosophical with some of the leaders in Philosophical Religion today, Alviin Plantinga. He was attributed with single handedly reinvigorating the debate in philosophical circles over the rationality of believing in god with his symbolic logic book written in the 90's (long considered a dead horse). Not as impressive as it sounds, he teaches over and Notre Dame and I'm sure you could do the same if you wanted to drop by.

Most people don't think about religion, they believe in it. So what better describes religion as it is? A few intellectuals writing books, investigating possibilities, and chit chatting over coffee or the other 99% of the believing masses? I think the answer is obvious.

This is what happens when you get into bed with Microsoft.

I'm becoming increasingly convinced that Highfield (Director of Future Media and Tech at the BBC - responsible for the iPlayer plan) is receiving substantial kickbacks from MS. He lies to the public and the government; he has no respect for many of the BBC's primary values, or the BBC Trust, non-Windows users... I could rant on this subject for hours but I get too worked up about it.

See this:

"The only thing that might stifle innovation would be the process of approving new services because that can take a long time. With BBC Trust approval framework for new services, we won't always be able to be number one"

Clearly, to Highfield, BBC Trust is just an irritant; an obstacle to navigate. More choice quotes here

"...[Apple's] proprietary and closed framework for digital rights management gives us headaches [but] it is one of our top priorities to re-engineer our proposed BBC iPlayer service to work on Macs."

Er, it's Microsoft's proprietary and closed framework for DRM (upon which the iPlayer is based) that is giving them headaches. At least the iTunes Store is multi-platform!

By adopting MS DRM, Highfield made the wrong decision from the outset and now he's stuck because he's blown his budget on MS proprietary, single-platform technology and the BBC Trust are wondering where the promised Linux and Mac clients are. When the Christmas deadline comes and goes with no satisfactory solution, we should start a new petition to the BBC Trust to have Highfield removed from his position.

This is what happens when you get into bed with Microsoft.

I'm becoming increasingly convinced that Highfield (Director of Future Media and Tech at the BBC - responsible for the iPlayer plan) is receiving substantial kickbacks from MS. He lies to the public and the government; he has no respect for many of the BBC's primary values, or the BBC Trust, non-Windows users... I could rant on this subject for hours but I get too worked up about it.

See this:

"The only thing that might stifle innovation would be the process of approving new services because that can take a long time. With BBC Trust approval framework for new services, we won't always be able to be number one"

Clearly, to Highfield, BBC Trust is just an irritant; an obstacle to navigate. More choice quotes here

"...[Apple's] proprietary and closed framework for digital rights management gives us headaches [but] it is one of our top priorities to re-engineer our proposed BBC iPlayer service to work on Macs."

Er, it's Microsoft's proprietary and closed framework for DRM (upon which the iPlayer is based) that is giving them headaches. At least the iTunes Store is multi-platform!

By adopting MS DRM, Highfield made the wrong decision from the outset and now he's stuck because he's blown his budget on MS proprietary, single-platform technology and the BBC Trust are wondering where the promised Linux and Mac clients are. When the Christmas deadline comes and goes with no satisfactory solution, we should start a new petition to the BBC Trust to have Highfield removed from his position.

So "Sun is getting warmer"? I bet you will now tell us that the reason why its getting warmer on Earth is because all that sunlight gets stuck in the atosphere? Because there is less reaching the surface than 30+ years ago.

That doesn't sound like the Guardian. In fact, they printed this complete phrase, without asterisks on at least 19 occasions in the last 5 years: http://browse.guardian.co.uk/search?site=guardian&search=%22fucking%20nigger%22
The version with the asterisks doesn't show up on a search at all.

I haven't even heard of a recent data loss or theft that involved a team of ninjas breaking in and stealing hard drives.

Right?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2187307,00.html
A long-serving police officer spent years selling confidential information to a private detective agency run by a couple of former colleagues, a court heard yesterday. John Matthews, 59, used the police national computer to check details of more than a hundred cars and people while he was at work and then tried to cover his tracks by pretending he was helping councils clear a backlog of abandoned vehicles.

So, lets just give the government and police forces more power! hah! Once the government cleans up it own back yard, then I'll let them near my car, DNA, and all the other personal information they want to store on a computer, but *promise* it won't be abused

You know what, after I posted I remembered actually hearing about police wanting something like this to be mandated. I did a little googling and:

UK Police call for remote button to stop cars. So, if you are in the UK at least, no it would not be a slippery slope; they have already asked for this power to be added to all cars once it is safe. Interestingly, some politicians expressed interest in this being used as a way to prevent speeders by forcibly reducing your car's maximum speed around school zones or in bad weather.

Two things: it costs money to issue patents, and secondly the patent office will totally collapse if they do that. Which might not be a bad thing, as it may mean that patents don't get passed in time, and it might force governments to reexamine the entire patent industry.

I should note that evolving new drugs from existing patents is already being done in medicine.

According to several reports, a big chunk of Apple's profit is coming from the locked-in service providers:

http://www.thestreet.com/s/huge-iphone-fees-juice-apple/newsanalysis/techtelecom/10369581.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/sep/17/mobilephones.apple

To make the same profit without a lock, Apple would have to raise the retail price significantly. Looks like a subsidy to me.

Even when they are wrong, I don't see scientists making any efforts to own up to their mistakes.

You're disparaging all scientists with one broad brush here. That seems inappropriate. But let's suppose for debate that you're right. In that hypothetical, are you sure that the reason for it would be that scientists have bad motives; or is it possible that we treat scientists badly when they say unpopular things. Certainly the Bush administration doesn't have a sterling record on this point. We tell them to be neutral (and I would hope they try to be), but we also tell them we're going to cut funding for anything that isn't suiting the nearterm needs of the specific administration in power. Even many tenured professors have to worry about where funding is coming from. I smell a Catch-22 here, so while I agree we have to be watchful of anti-Science political environments that promote such bias.

I don't even see them using science to respond to critics, they just accuse their accuser of being funded by big oil or having an agenda or some other childishness.

Ignoring the question of whether such arguments are paid for by big oil, what exactly are the criticisms? What are the opposing theories? And on what science are they based? Where can I go read? I read through the Wikipedia entries on ozone depletion, for example, and even the section on controversy looks pretty light on disagreement. It comes right out and says that the fact of ozone depletion is "not seriously disputed in the scientific community", and it is not followed by any claim to the contrary. There are notes about how some effects on cancers may not be due to ozone depletion, but that's not the same thing as saying people doubt the fact of ozone depletion. Do you know of some new repository of respected science that should be added as a reference in this location?

whereas only good can come from giving starving people food

Especially if it is GM crops.

CC.

You make excellent points, so I apologize for wishing to insert a clarification. The depletion of the ozone layer is a separate issue from global warming. Ozone depletion is caused by chemical pollutants, particularly CFCs (chloroflorocarbons), that catalyze chemical reactions in the upper atmosphere that break down ozone. These pollutants have leveled off and are in decline thanks to the 1987 Montreal Protocols. Global warming itself is that the direct cause of Ozone depletion in the upper atmosphere.

That said, global warming may be making matters worse for the Ozone due to indirect effects (see this article from a couple years ago.

Also, I would not regard the production of green house gases as less important the toxic chemical pollution over the long haul. Some level of global warming is now more or less inevitable, but if we do nothing now, then things in the long haul could get much worse.

Another in a series of my Dragons posts, this time about more invasion of my rights. This Guardian Unlimited article talks about the police wanting to make it illegal to withold encryption keys when asked for them.

They also want to make it a criminal offence for suspects to refuse to cooperate in giving the police full access to computer files by refusing to disclose their encryption keys.

Let me just publically reply to that with one word: NO .

My encryption keys are put there to keep YOU out, permanently. If you do not have the right to see the information, data or other bits encrypted by my (exceptionally-strong) keys, you simply wont get access to it.

Threaten me with jail, throw me in jail, do what you think will work to get me to turn over my keys it will not work. I would rather spend a lifetime in jail protecting my data, than give you the irrevokable right to invade my privacy and freedoms and the freedoms of others who would come after me.

The persuit of freedom and upholding those freedoms is worth more than my life or the lives of any of my friends or family. They dont have my keys and torturing them will not get me to give them up. I have an incredible tolerance to pain, some would say inhuman in some cases (Ive had doctors tell me this several times, as I underwent E.R. procedures without any numbing agent).

Shipping me off to some other country that allows torture to try to extract my encryption keys will result in one of two things:

1. A frustrated torturer, who is unable to extract my keys
2. A dead suspect, after enduring hundreds of different torture methods, unsuccessfully

Either way, you dont get my keys, or my data, or anything I dont elect to give you. Pain, medications, whatever you think will work, will not. My willpower and tolerance is stronger than anything you have.

Let me reiterate, you will not get my encryption keys, under pain of threat, physical pain, medication or otherwise. Either I will be dead, or you will give up. Either way, you have nothing.

Are we clear? Good.

From The Guardian (UK's main soft left newspaper): How Russia lost the moon Sergei Khrushchev: The Soviets squandered the lead in the space race that Sputnik gave them, despite my father's efforts. You can read it at http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2181418,00.html.

Although I'm sure you were joking when you said "cash", here's an idea of how that much cash would look.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2008189,00.html

Considering that this is 2/3 as much ($8bn vs $12bn) you could scale down and say that if this were presented as packages of $100 bills, it would weigh approximately (363*2/3) = 242 tons.

It's somewhat annoying to measure cash in "tons of $100 bills" and to think that none of it going to me ;(

Recently in the UK, my girlfriend was travelling on a long distance train. She had a first-class ticket for most her journey, but only a normal class ticket for the first few stops (it's much, much cheaper that way).

When she got on the train, she put her luggage in first class, as that's where she'd be when she got to her destination, then she went to normal class. Before the first stop, the on-board staff announced that they'd found unattended luggage in first class and would be putting it off the train at the next stop if somebody didn't claim it.

When she went to claim it, they said one of the train passengers had noticed her stowing her luggage and then leaving the carriage. What with it being 2007-Sep-11, they were worried it might be a bomb.

I realise the plural of anecdote isn't data, but that's impressive levels of observation and paranoia from the train passengers. Do you think terrorists would fare any better against them?

theres a little police action happening in a small oil-rich country in the middle east that has been shown to have been predicated on fabrication and hubris, clearly against all international law, and has left anywhere between 100,000 and 500,000^W 1,200,000 dead

Well, we Americans need to get off our asses like our friends in the UK have done with traffic cameras: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1037031,00.html

I'm sure anyone engaging in such activity in this country will be labelled a terrorist...so do it at your own risk. I do not endorse this behavior in any way, shape, or form.

Now, off to the sporting goods store to pick up a baseball bat and a ski-mask...

They just got some PR that they didn't need.

I would have thought that the issues raised by this are a lot more important (especially given that he has shut down blogs belonging to MP's, a candidate for Mayor of London etc.), but Slashdot is too US centric to care about what happens across the Atlantic (even though you can be sued for libel in the UK, if just one person in Britain views your website based anywhere in the world - so slashdot better not libel me!).

Microsoft in row over lobby tactics

Microsoft is at the centre of an embarrassing row over an attempt by a lobby firm strongly linked with the Seattle computer giant to rally opposition against rival Google's proposed acqusition of internet marketing firm DoubleClick.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/microsoft/Story/0,,2174795,00.html

I'm sorry, but all men are born with an innate right to defend themselves from others and the government. You government takes away your innate rights. People are born with the right to life, liberty and to pursue their dreams and to property, so long as they do no deprive others of their right to live, liberty and property. All people have the right to speak freely, the internet you are using to try and advocate stripping my rights is far more free than your press, all people have the right to self defense against tyranny and crime, all people have the right against search and seizure without proper warrant, all people have the right to not self incriminate, and the right against double jeopardy, all people have the right to a jury of peers and a public speedy trial, and all people have the right to a punishment that is not cruel or unusual.

I'm sorry your horrible government cant enumerate rights for you. We believe, and have shown, that free people do thrive. Your government executes more people each year than are murdered in the USA, and your government is guilty of killing tens of millions.

Lets have a list of what PROC/China is up to of late:

The PRC Chinese government has murdered countless people:
"DEATH BY GOVERNMENT: GENOCIDE AND MASS MURDER"

http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.TAB1.GIF

http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.FIG1.GIF

http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/NOTE1.HTM

China tires recalled:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/26/business/26tire.php

The organising committee of Beijing's Olympic games has promised to investigate charges that official merchandise is being manufactured using child labour.

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=d26dab8b 2bd85303&ei=5070

The PRC Chinese poison Children's Toys:
http://consumerist.com/consumer/chinese-poison-train/15-million-thomas--friends- toys-recalled-due-to-lead-paint-from-china-268658.php
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070614/thomas_recall_07061 4/20070614?hub=CTVNewsAt11
http://blogs.eastbayexpress.com/92510/2007/06/thomas_why_hath_thou_forsaken.php

Chinese Seafood Detained for Safety
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070628/D8Q239O00.html

CNN "The China Syndrome" Special on China's dire problems in keeping food clean:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/business/2007/07/04/vause.china.syndrome.cnn

- 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.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,2118920,00.html

China Jails 2 Protestant Church Leaders

It has been reported that, in fact, a Dreamliner crashed in Peru and then made everyone in the surrounding villages sick http://www.guardian.co.uk/space/article/0,,2171920,00.html. Initially, it was thought that it was some strange meteorite or UFO. But, no, it was a DREAMLINER!

Airbus have been using composite parts in their aircraft for quite a while. However, as it turns out, this hasn't been a problem free experience. Notable examples are Air Transat flight 961 where the composite rudder fell off the Airbus A310 in mid-flight. Also, more tragically, American Airlines flight 587 crashed after the co-pilot made several rudder reversals resulting in the composite tail fin of the A300-600 snapping off.

I hope Boeing have learned from these accidents.

It's worth noting that Lord Justice Sedley, who called for the expansion of the database, recommended that "The entire UK population and every visitor to Britain should be put on the national DNA database, a top judge said today." [emphasis mine].

Lord Sedley is said to have taken fairly liberal stands historically, so it is entirely possible that these comments were intended to raise awareness and controversy over this particular issue. I agree with him wholeheartedly that the current implementation specifically targets ethnic and social groups and that this is a grevious wrong. However the expansion of the database is a truly horrifying idea.

It is also worth noting that the groundwork for the use of DNA for and by parties unrelated to law enforcement has already been laid. This should raise serious concerns.

As has been commented earlier - it is wrong for a government to treat all its citizens as potential criminals. This broadens the scope of this wrong even further. Were these proposals to come to fruition, my government would be treating everyone in the world as a potential criminal. And I thought we were reasonably laid-back compared to the USA.

F_T

It's worth noting that Lord Justice Sedley, who called for the expansion of the database, recommended that "The entire UK population and every visitor to Britain should be put on the national DNA database, a top judge said today." [emphasis mine].

Lord Sedley is said to have taken fairly liberal stands historically, so it is entirely possible that these comments were intended to raise awareness and controversy over this particular issue. I agree with him wholeheartedly that the current implementation specifically targets ethnic and social groups and that this is a grevious wrong. However the expansion of the database is a truly horrifying idea.

It is also worth noting that the groundwork for the use of DNA for and by parties unrelated to law enforcement has already been laid. This should raise serious concerns.

As has been commented earlier - it is wrong for a government to treat all its citizens as potential criminals. This broadens the scope of this wrong even further. Were these proposals to come to fruition, my government would be treating everyone in the world as a potential criminal. And I thought we were reasonably laid-back compared to the USA.

F_T

Actually, it was this one http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,2119695,00.html.

It is important to understand what you've read, also. To me it seems that your understanding of the environmental issues is as deep as your understanding of that article.

Also, hyperlinking is the act of linking two or more documents together. Following hyperlinks is more like reading the document. Especially if they are quoted in the context.

So stop being such a pompous asshole, you are dumber than you realize.

Better articles w/ links:
News.com
The Guardian (Blog)
CNN Money
ZDNET

And also, actual Lotus Symphony page on IBM's site, with download link.

This article has a picture of the crater.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/space/article/0,,2171920,00.html

And for those of you who don't know, TGGWS is just BS. Start to finish, pure crap. Just about every scientist in it has said that they were misrepresented, the director is known for being a fabricator. It's the "Dinosaurs lived with adam and eve" version of science. Utter shit. And you are below contempt for spreading it. See:

http://flet.org/node/20
http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/about_bas/news/news_story.php?id=178
http://folk.uio.no/nathan/web/statement.html
http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/news.asp?id=6089
http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,2119695,00.html
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/climate_change/article2368999.ece

and TONS of others. The data are misrepresented, words taken out of context etc etc. Wall to wall shit from someone with a vested interest in spreading FUD. I know some of you still don't think global climate change happens, and some of you think the earth is flat too, but the HUGE SCIENTIFIC CONSENSUS is that the climate is changing, to some degree it's man made and we need to do something about it.

Slashdot readers interested in the news that the NYT is "free" might be interested in other free as in beer newspapers. Who could possibly resist the temptation to visit the best newspaper in the English language - The Sun. http://www.thesun.co.uk/
You can check out if it is going to be a Zoe McConnell day, which legend has it, augurs good luck.
The Miami Herald http://www.miamiherald.com/ is free too and available in a Spanish edition. Speigel (the English version) http://www.spiegel.de/international/ is free too, and the Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/ and the Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ are also free. Oh and the Independent http://www.independent.co.uk/ which could once claim to be the finest newspaper in the English language is free also. Robert Fisk appears in that one, I believe he finds some sympathy with some slash dotters. Private Eye http://www.private-eye.co.uk/ remains annoyingly non-free for cheapskates like myself and neither is Viz http://www.viz.co.uk/- which used to be funny once. Top Tip number eleven is quite funny. A very brief trawl of the internet should probably result in an appropriate newspaper for every possible shade of opinion.

...who arguably invented the smartphone, and announced they were moving to a Linux-based OS in 2005 (from memory) are now saying they won't get there for another 12-18 months - http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/sep/13/guardianweeklytechnologysection.it. A bit sad really. I blame Foleo.

Terror rains drenchin', quenchin' tha thirst of tha power dons
[...]
What we don't know keeps tha contracts alive an movin'
They don't gotta burn tha books they just remove 'em
While arms warehouses fill as quick as tha cells
[...]
They rally round tha family! With a pocket full of shells

"Bulls on Parade" is a song released by Rage Against the Machine in 1996, and can be found on their second album Evil Empire. One of Rage's signature songs, it deals with what is commonly referred to as the "military-industrial complex", which is the tendency of industry (the arms industry in particular) to encourage military action in order to gain military contracts, and therefore increase its profits. Lines such as "Weapons; not food, not homes, not shoes, not need, just feed the war cannibal-animal," and "what we don't know keeps the contracts alive and moving / they don't gotta burn the books they just remove 'em" are just a couple of examples of the several allusions to the military-industrial complex throughout the song. With the words, "Terror rains, drenching, quenching the thirst of the power dons," the song suggests that the fear of terrorism is used to manipulate the American populace into supporting dubious military action. The phrase "terror rains" also serves as a double entendre, which suggests that "terror reigns" by way of the government terror as a tool.

Germany is soon becoming a screwed up democracy like the USA.

More like a repeat of the '20s and '30s. I'm sure some find the whole thing rather nostalgic.

Too bad the politicians slept in class.

They are beholden to weapons manufacturers and dealers. "Terrorists" are their best customers. And probably pay cash, so everything's off the books. Politicians and Wall Street hoodlums are wide awake and laughing all the way to the bank. The only thing they are fighting is a recession in the arms trade. That's why the urge to get places like Libya back on the client list.

My main counterargument to the quackery thesis (and I have a few others) is the "sniffing sharks". We know that sharks are able to somehow "sniff" blood in sea water from miles away and they all congregate quickly around the prey. This is not a myth, it's been documented and it is readily accepted. For the sharks to be able to somehow sense that blood, they have to be able to perceive dillutions at least as high as those found in homeopathy. We also know that dogs and most animals are able to pick up scents with similar high dillutions. Then why can't we accept that homeopathy, when done right and by the [huge] book, can actually work, using the same principles?

I have tried once, when I was a kid, a homeopathic doctor, but that guy was a quack. His interview was just dumb (and the interview is a very important part of the classic homeopathy), and he ended up prescribing a remedy that's given usually without interview. I did not take it and haven't tried again.

Finally, we all know that since the 80s, there have been at least two high profile attempts to prove that water does have memory. In both cases, they resulted in ending the careers of those scientists when the experiments could not be replicated. What bothers me is why would respected scientists chose to go ahead and publish such revolutionary research, bound to be thoroughly examined by their peers, if they did not have the results to back it up? Is it not possible though that they were not quacks as well, but rather that they found something and yet failed to describe certain conditions that resulted in replications failure?

No, just kidding. This looks like awful science, just like the 19th Century studies that confirmed the experimenter's prejudices that black people and women were inferior.