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Apple are already working on a new deodorant called iStink.

Why not iStick instead of iStink. Not to be confused with iceDick, a never-before-revealed weapon due to appear on the final season of Game of Thrones.

Definitely, this is kind of a Big Deal(tm) --- If you watch last week's episode of VICE (or was it the week before...?) on HBO, they delve a bit into the state of AI technology and actually mention a Go match with AlphaGo and a Chinese master player, I don't remember if it's the same guy though. In that episode (edit: ahh there it is, it was two weeks ago; "Engineering Immortality & Robot Revolution" talks robotics + AI with Hammilton Morris, my favorite VICE guy) they explain a little bit why defeating these Go champions w/ AI is a bit more impressive than it seems initially. If you have HBO or HBO GO (lol), you can watch the episode here ---> http://www.hbo.com/vice/episod... -- or just torrent it like a normal human being.

Why was that an AC post? Lack of appropriate evidence? Without saying whether or not I would personally look at any porn, I can present such evidence:

Around '97 I was working for one of the first ISPs in this country, and the president came right out and said that porn was paying for the Internet. I can't remember his exact words, but that was the gist of it. (Can't ask him now because he got shot to death when he was visiting the States a few years later (but that's another diversion).) I feel like the context of the discussion had included the newsgroup alt.binaries, which I had been running through UUCP between two other ISPs... His company owned one end of a major fiber link and the traffic volume was heavy on the porn. A frame relay pipe? Bad sign when all the personal details start feeling like histories of the Greeks and Romans.

Having said that, maybe this is a case of the broken clock being right twice a day? Here's Bill Maher's version in text form:

http://www.hbo.com/real-time-w...

Another bad sign? I remember the video as though it was much more recent than 2011, but the text seems to match my memories pretty well.

Porn considered harmful?

Come on, go big or go home

http://store.hbo.com/game-of-t...

IIRC, Prez and Freamon monitored the payphone wiretap, while McNulty and the rest of the task force watched the pay phones with binoculars.

--
The Wire
Wiki
IMDb
HBO

I'll still pay you. I paid for seasons 1-4. I'll pay for 5 on google play. I just couldn't wait, and I don't want your stupid service, since the ONLY thing you have that I want is GoT. Me, and pretty much everyone.

Maybe you should look into True Detective as well. That one was pretty good, and Silicon Valley is pretty good for a comedy, especially given it's CS subject matter.

I'll still pay you. I paid for seasons 1-4. I'll pay for 5 on google play. I just couldn't wait, and I don't want your stupid service, since the ONLY thing you have that I want is GoT. Me, and pretty much everyone.

Maybe you should look into True Detective as well. That one was pretty good, and Silicon Valley is pretty good for a comedy, especially given it's CS subject matter.

Clearly no one watches Vice.

http://www.hbo.com/vice/episod...

If I might add to your spot-on assertions: There was a documentary on obesity called The Weight of the Nation that quite clearly explains the differences in basal metabolic rates between two people.

Two women of the same size and weight are sitting at a table drinking tea (or whatever). One consumes 2000 calories a day as she always has and has never had a weight problem. The other struggled with weight her whole life and eventually dieted to get down to her current weight. She consumes 1300 calories a day to maintain that weight. The difference is in their base metabolic needs; the naturally thin woman is less calorie efficient than the dieting woman. Thus, if they eat the same amount of food--2000 calories a day--one women will keep her same weight, while the other will start gaining. That is also the core of the "yo-yo diet" problem.

There are all kinds of other examples, such as Native American populations that have lived off of fish and basic agriculture for centuries becoming obese and struggling with diabetes and heart disease because they gained access to McDonald's, while the near-by white populations remained unchanged.

I think that people confuse the fact that a calorie deficit will necessarily lead to weight loss with a linear relationship between food intake and metabolized calories when in reality everyone's ability to metabolize food into calories is different.

> I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

See the claim:

Copyright claim #4:
    Game of Thrones (Original TV Show)
Original work URL(s):
    http://www.hbo.com/game-of-thrones/index.html

Allegedly infringing URLs:
    0. https://tpb.ipredator.se/torrent/8493409/Game_of_Thrones_S03E08_480p_HDTV_x264_-VYTO%5BP2PDL%5D
snip
    407. http://www.torrentportal.com/details/6093721/VLC-Media-Player-2.0.7-Final-(32-64-bit)-Official.html

They are alleging that VLC is violating their copyright on Game of Thrones. They own the copyright on Game of Thrones so they are in the clear. The fact that their allegation is completely off base doesn't matter.

This is actually a necessary and very unfortunate consequence of our copyright law... Because there aren't clear boundaries for what constitutes fair use and an original work, there is no ability to assert with any certainty that a given work is not derivative. Suppose that maybe that an error message in VLC contains a couple words from the show: it's legitimate (albeit in bad faith) to claim that VLC is now violating your copyright. So unfortunately without a revision to copyright law the only way to hold these people accountable for their 'mistakes' would require them to sue and have the court declare the work non-infringing. Maybe that would be better than the current, but it would undermine the whole point of takedown requests in the first place.

Actually, this is what did happen in the US. The church kept records of known child abusing priests, and did not report them to the police. The priests were simply moved to new locations, instead. This is why victims were later able to sue the church diocese, instead of just the priest. The church was guilty of hiding the crimes of the priests.

The same thing happened in the United Kingdom, Italy, Ireland, Germany, and a whole host of other countries. This is not a US problem, it's a world problem. The timing of the last pope stepping down was quite interesting...a week after an HBO documentary "Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God" was released for general consumption, linking both the current Pope and his soon-to-be-sainted predecisor directly to the pedophile coverups and worse. In fact, Pope John-Paul II covered for his good pedophile friend up until he died and passed the mantle on to Ratzinger. I wonder if they'll make St. Pedo, I mean John-Paul II, the patron saint of children and knock the other guy aside?

One thing is sure, mothers will still be carting their kids off to the churches, never mind the danger to their offspring. That, more than anything, illustrates the power of indoctrination and denial.

http://www.hbo.com/#/schedule/detail/Mea+Maxima+Culpa%3A+Silence+in+the+House+of+God/562415

It's also a problem in public schools, boy scouts, universities and just about every church and institution. It's not specific to the catholic church. Pope John Paul II didn't cover for the priests, he actually instructed the US bishops to quit using canon law (church law) as a defense for their actions and to cooperate with the civil authorities.

You also leave out of your synopsis that up until the late 1980s, pedophilia was considered curable and many of these priests that were transferred were done so after they had been pronounced cured. It turns out that they were situational abusers and only appeared safe until some stressor or trigger presented itself.

None of this excuses what happened in the catholic church, but perpetuating the myth that it is just a catholic church issue is dangerous as the sexual abuse of minors is rampant and widespread in western culture.

Actually, this is what did happen in the US. The church kept records of known child abusing priests, and did not report them to the police. The priests were simply moved to new locations, instead. This is why victims were later able to sue the church diocese, instead of just the priest. The church was guilty of hiding the crimes of the priests.

The same thing happened in the United Kingdom, Italy, Ireland, Germany, and a whole host of other countries. This is not a US problem, it's a world problem. The timing of the last pope stepping down was quite interesting...a week after an HBO documentary "Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God" was released for general consumption, linking both the current Pope and his soon-to-be-sainted predecisor directly to the pedophile coverups and worse. In fact, Pope John-Paul II covered for his good pedophile friend up until he died and passed the mantle on to Ratzinger. I wonder if they'll make St. Pedo, I mean John-Paul II, the patron saint of children and knock the other guy aside?

One thing is sure, mothers will still be carting their kids off to the churches, never mind the danger to their offspring. That, more than anything, illustrates the power of indoctrination and denial.

http://www.hbo.com/#/schedule/detail/Mea+Maxima+Culpa%3A+Silence+in+the+House+of+God/562415

Pretty sure you can sign up for HBO without your cable company and just watch it streaming though

I visited the Order Now page a minute ago and it said "select your provider from the list below". There was no option in the scrolling list for "no provider".

Yeah, this was the real story. Considering that the other guy (incumbent Governor O'Malley) was basically the source material for Tommy Carcetti, the fact that Ehrlich is even scummier should be startling.

In Treatment, good show from HBO, 43 episodes per season. http://www.hbo.com/in-treatment/ . Just saying that although unlikely, it is possible and we don't even have to go look for obscure shows outside the US.

Regarding price, I have to disagree, there is a psychological price perception, based on what you feel that you're getting. I would never buy a single tvshow season for $100, as I would never buy a music album for $50.

From the producer's point of view, producing a tvshow episode is expensive, therefore it must be priced accordingly.
From the consumer's point of view, watching an episode is an ephemeral experience that is rarely repeated.

So, in the consumer's mind, an episode shouldn't cost three times more than a $1 audio track, when the track will get tens of listens and the episode will get one or two viewings.

In the end, the consumers would be right, but producers are fighting very hard to defeat the "the customer is always right" theory.

Also, I believe HBO now owns Funny or Die, and airs the videos in a late night show called "Funny or Die presents..." Did some work on an ep a few months ago and this is what the deal memo led me to believe. Ironically, I don't actually get HBO, so I can't tell you for sure. http://www.hbo.com/funny-or-die-presents

And I've never had an issue submitting things to IMDb. Nearly every update I've submitted is up within 24 hours. Most of the time I provide a link with proof/citation of the information I'm submitting, which may be the "additional information" they were looking for? Who knows.

Oh, here's a link to info on the documentary. I guess there is poverty everywhere.

I'll take you up on your challenge and visit each site to see what I think about it. Note that my laptop has a 10" screen so I'm not expecting many of these sites to work at this resolution.

1 Moodstream

Yep, didn't fit in my screen. The controls were cut off on top and bottom.

2 monoface

Top of the person's head was cut off but the site was still usable... and hilarious. Thanks for that.

3 WATERLIFE

This site nicely provides the scroll bar on the side so I can still see any content that has gotten clipped off of the screen. Fonts on the bottom are too small and because it is flash I either lean forward and squint or choose not to read the text.

4 Mark Ecko

I just about barfed all over my laptop. That is an awful site. Everything is moving around following my cursor, menu will drop down over my cursor when attempting to move the screen to the top because there appears to be content out of reach. I attempted to contact them to share my opinion but I clicked on a link which downloaded a pdf and so I gave up. Maybe it isn't flash that should die but flash developers shouldn't be allowed onto the internet.

5 HBO

In my opinion this site could use html5. I don't see how this site uses flash that couldn't more easily be done in html5.

6 Get the Glass

This looks cool but again, it cuts off at the bottom the screen so I can't read the button labels (although I know that they are there) and going fullscreen doesn't help for some reason as the portion of the words that is off of the screen doesn't get drawn even when the screen size changes.

7 http://www.agencynet.com/

This one is especially bad on my small screen. Half of the text is missing unless I'm viewing it in full screen. Links are overlapping. And even after everything is loaded, getting anywhere is slow. And I hate the design.

8 2Advanced Studios

I had hope for this one when I saw the scroll bar but the font is too small, annoying sound effects mean that I leave this site even though I can see some nice looking art

9 SectionSeven

Well that is a mesmarizingly useless loading bar. And navigation is hidden unless I go to fullscreen. I hate the navigation and again with the overlapping links.

10 Dave Werner

Hey they have scroll bars! So at least I can see everything if I try. However, fonts are too small and at least one of them looks quite a bit worse than Comic Sans and the navigation is annoying. There is no way to quickly see what options are available. To get to know all of the options I would need to carefully move my mouse over the entier area, starting from the left and mentally creating a grid on the screen and making sure that I mouse over everything. That is just plain stupid.

And my conclusion is that flash should die. Of course, I'm hardly unbiased. I'm on a netbook so nearly every flash site breaks. I'm on a slow internet connection so I always need to wait to view the site. I don't have good eyesight and I regularily make use of my Ctrl+ and Ctrl- keyboard shortcuts to read text. That is obviously imopssible on flash sites. I use keyboard shortcuts a lot and flash sites break my browser based keyboard shortcuts like page up and down, f11 for fullscreen, Ctrl t for n

1 Moodstream
2 monoface
3 WATERLIFE
4 Mark Ecko
5 HBO
6 Get the Glass
7 http://www.agencynet.com/
8 2Advanced Studios
9 SectionSeven
10 Dave Werner

Source: Top 10 Best Flash Websites of 2010

or True Blood?

comes with a free camera phone.

Allow Bill Maher to explain it to you (here's the video).

You see, conservatives think apologizing is a sign of weakness. It's what liberal pussies do when they're not busy driving electric cars and feeling empathy. When, in fact, it's the weak and the scared who are too insecure to apologize.

I found this documentary provocative and allows non-technical people to understand the hacking potential for these systems. http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/hackingdemocracy/index.html

This is what I meant, http://www.hbo.com/conchords/cast/index.html What did you mean?

Strictly speaking, addiction requires some form of chemical agent, which video games lack.

Based on what scientists have learned about neurochemistry, addictive substances like nicotine, alcohol and opiates all dramatically alter the dopamine pathways in the brain. In short, they rewire the main motivational system of the brain. These changes can actually be measured and observed in the brains of addicts.

HBO had an excellent series on addiction a while back. The site for the series is full of useful information on addiction.

http://www.hbo.com/addiction/understanding_addiction/12_pleasure_pathway.html

I have yet to see any study showing the same dramatic effects from video game playing. So, while it may be video games may be addictive in a figurative sense, there's no evidence that I've seen indicating that they alter the brain the same way addictive substances do.

A more accurate term would be a video game compulsion - not an addiction.

Colonialism has caused things like rape to become the number one violent crime in Africa. They have children under 8 in the Congo that respond sexually to strangers because they have been sexualized at infancy. Yet the Congo is allowed to do this by the AU, the US and the EU. Chap cobalt, copper and diamonds are bartered for these governments to institutionalize rape. We are fully responsible even now for what happens in Africa get your head out of your ass good sir and learn about post and neo colonialism or we may it at fisticuffs. Your ignorance and others like it, is sickly and deadly, know that.

They really need to stop having so many kids, smaller families will put far less of a strain on the available resources.

We need to make sure the capital they get from us for their resources does not go to purchasing defense goods from us. Its all a fucking trick, The US, EU or IMF go in promising civilian aid and industrial development (resource extraction industries) to any country that will hold up a certain set of economic laws that are to the advantage of the international companies doing business in said country. Shortly after this begins the national treasury of the country enjoys record revenue as the companies deliver on their promise of paying them some taxes, kick backs and the like and everyone in charge of the national government or the resource industries has almost absolute economic power and often unifies into a cartel. Because we insisted on economic reforms and not political reforms that would do things like guarantee universal human rights the rest of the people in the country become the participants of a game fueled by the worst aspects of plutocracy and exist in fear of becoming human targets, rape victims and live with dreams of far more bloody things.

We than tell them they can buy weapons from us. For us to continue to sell to some of these countries armor personal carriers that they use as mobile rape rooms, tanks which they use to shell refuge camps and guns, oh god guns; those things that kill 20% of some males in Central Africa is to encourage it at this point, and China should be ashamed to be doing it right now with Sudan. It seems some people like you, who are so self-righteously ignorant should bone up on the situation before letting loose the blind aims of your prejudices.

Go see this movie The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo and than tell me they have any choice but to hope for international armed intervention. We need a fucking UN with balls that goes after genocide, rape and other truly terrible things with a technologically advanced force.

http://www.hbo.com/billmaher/new_rules/20061020.html

Our intention was good: to penetrate Iraq and bring it to a glorious, euphoric climax. But it's clear now that's just not going to happen. And yet we're still pounding away.

Causing the whole area to become painfully inflamed. And in that situation, the kindest thing you can do is...just pull out.

After sorting thru blackboxvoting.org and .com and otherwise trying to stay abreast of this stuff for years, I have to admit that the HBO documentary I saw last year blew the doors off any other analysis I have ever seen. Also, it makes sense to people who don't understand hardware, network security, or statistics, only sparse attention span required.

Check it out: http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/hackingdemocracy/synopsis.html

all valid points, I was responding to one simple topic though, not saying that the united states was any better and you've cited some good examples of similar content, but at the same time it's the morning and I've not had some coffee so I'm lazy search wise. But there are people like Real Time with Bill Mahr is one of those that I like to follow.

Unfortunately, when you have an aggressive mentality vs. a passive mentality. That is what is playing out in our politics. One side does anything to win, the other side is to scared of their own shadow to make a principled stand. Least that's how I see it.

There are hawks who insist that Saddam Hussein had a relationship with Al Qaeda.

Stephen Hayes argued passionately about it during the Aug 24th episode of Real Time with Bill Maher.

Maybe they're thinking of the Bush administration's claims about a link (Condi Rice said that Iraq was connected to what happened on 9/11), even Bill O'Reilly tried to spin the 9/11 Commission's report and say there was a link.

http://www.hbo.com/oz/episode/season1/01_routine.s html

Any chance of making the above Oz in to a movie?

If that's Paulie "Walnuts" Gualtieri in the photo, I'd be handing the computer off to the next guy. I'm not gonna whacked over stealing some wiseguy's pr0n or music files.

The ringwraiths were on a mission of stealth. Revealing them clearly would urge everyone on the sidelines to prepare, and a trail of dead bodies kind of makes it hard to tail the ringbearer all quiet-like.

Well, the ringwraiths should have brought along a nailgun and dumped the bodies in abandoned row houses.

That's Emanuel Steward, he helped prepare Jeremy Allison for this article.

The ghost of Stringer Bell is moderately impressed.

But, look, George Bush has never been too bright about understanding 'fereigners.' But he does know Americans. He asked this generation to sacrifice the things he knew we would not miss: our privacy and our morality. He let us keep the money. But he made a cynical bet that we wouldn't much care if we became a 'Big Brother' country that has now tortured a lot of random people...

In conclusion, after 9/11, President Bush told us Osama bin Laden could run but he couldn't hide. But, then he ran and hid. So, Bush went to Plan B: pissing on the Constitution and torturing random people...

They say evil happens when good men do nothing. Well, the Democrats prove it also happens when mediocre people do nothing."

Full text here.

OK you get about 80 stations for $26 How many are actually worth watching? and would your like them better if they had no ads :-) and better still could be critical about any company without worrying about loss of Ad revenue.

There is also Freeview which is getting increaingly good 40 odd free channels with about 5-10 digital only commercial channels with anything worth watching (Freeview would have died without Aunty comming in an giving the kiss of life, she's rather keen on going digital)

I'm not saying the system is prefect but for the most part I like what there doing with my money

You are talking to a person who does donate PBS... esp for programs from the BBC. It's different now that doctor who is on commercial television, CBC and Sci-Fi. IIRC during the days local stations bought Doctor Who (pre-1988), a recent episode cost $1000 for the local station. I guess 12 to 13 episodes was the norm at the time, so a given city which carried this particular program shelled out $12k or so/year, of which a joe like my self would toss $10/month their way, a very small donation but I never asked for the newsletter.

My only complaint is the fact that someone like my self can't just subscribe to the UK feed. BBC-america is somewhat of a joke, though there are programs which I can watch. There is "some" new programing on it, but most of the time it seems like old shows... with the same 12 episodes repeated over and over again. But needless to say i'm not offended by paying for programing.

But how much is worth watching at $26/month. This is what I actually use

-news-
Northwest Cable News - Traffic reports / local news
  The Weather Channel
  CNN
CBUT-Canadian (CBC) (olympic coverage is excelent)
-Educational-
Discovery
Food Network
History Channel
National Geographic
-Entertainment-
USA - monk
TNT - Movies sometimes
Comedy Central
A&E / Independent Film Channel
Sci-Fi - Stargate Eureka
Cartoon Network - Anime
BBC America
CBUT-Canadian (CBC)

I'd say 14 out of out of 55 stations have at least one program I enjoy.
The other 25 stations are mostly off the air stuff.

[broadcast]
PBS - Nova, some BBC material
PBS - two pbs affiliates in my area, somewhat commercial free. For example the yankie workshop starts off with an advert for power tools, but then continues commercial free.
ABC
NBC - Heroes
NBC old movies
CBS
UPN
FOX - Simpsons, House M.D.

There are some other stations off the air, some religious, some to be honest i've never heard of or seen. But out of 8 mainstream broadcast stations, i'd say 4 of them I watch on a regular basis. My tv watching has been limited as the big three networks have been hip on reality shows, game shows, and desprite housewives.

Currently worth watching on HBO is ROME, a joint HBO/BBC production.
Showtime had "Dead like Me" Showtime / Hbo is another $15 each there and abouts, or $56.50 for digital and two premium stations. Both are commercial free.

Check out the documentaries Jesus Camp or Friends of God to see people determined to create some sort of Christian Taliban in the US. Truly chilling stuff.

In recent years, opposition to Abortion, Gay Marriage, Evolution and Global Warming have moved from fringe social issues to central articles of faith for these people.

I'm especially puzzled by the inclusion of Global Warming in the mix: how does a particular stance on climate change get included as a litmus test of Christian values? Is selling out to Big Oil now the eleventh commandment?

if you haven't seen "Hacking Democracy" you better.

>But if a paper copy is given to the voter, then lies are caught

Um, no. The part of the program that prints the paper does not need
to match the part that records the votes. Check out the HBO film
"Hacking Democracy" for an example of this. http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/hackingdemocracy/

It was on the net last week.

It was on the net last week.

For those of you who don't know what the issues are with these voting machines (and more importantly, the voting machine companies.) Take a look at the HBO documentary: Hacking Democracy. http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/hackingdemocracy/ index.html It's also apparently available to be viewed on Google video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-723679120 7107726851

Actually, a hack like that was done by a Dutch security expert for HBO's Hacking Democracy. Unfortunately, was unable to find the gentleman's name on the website. However, he wrote a program that would sit on a smart card and execute upon insertion. This program then changed the machine vote count tallies, along with changing the recorded paper tally, and then erased itself. It was demonstrated on a standard Optical Scan Reader based system, one taken from a collection of certified machines sitting within a warehouse.

There is no doubt about feasibility of such a hack. The issue is scale of operation in this case, with a very small town and a local election at stake, vs. a hack that almost certainly would only be used (if ever - no evidence currently exists showing it has been) on a national scale.

I do not doubt this machine recorded in error. So, fine - determine the cause and fix it. There is a paper trail that - admittedly - could have been tampered with. In this case, so what?

You're right. I just used the wrong words. I should have said that the source code should be open for inspection so that we can be sure that it's safe. We probably should know how the system delivers the votes to the central tabulator too. Just watched Hacking Democracy ( http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/hackingdemocracy/ ) last night and it scared the crap out of me.

Your fear and ingrained anti-semitism bubbles to the surface in a flood of name dropping and half-connected half-truths. You will never understand the complex reality of our world. You are lost in your own prejudices and small-mindedness. I post this for anybody else who might be misguided by your ignorance.

The US war against Iraq was executed for three primary reasons: cronyism, oil, and the preservation of Western civilization.

1. Cronyism: The machine that is the Bush administration successfully diverted billions of dollars of US taxpayer money to its corporate friends (e.g. Halliburton) for "rebuilding" a nation it destroyed with weapons purchased from yet other corporate friends. This is the military-industrial complex Eisenhower warned us about in 1961 [1]. The Bush machine operates with tight ties to private industry and is arguably in power because of their nefarious arragnements with e-voting company Diebold and its predecessors [2] [3].

2. Oil: The US economy and American way of life is founded on cheap oil. Everything from big box stores to large urban areas to suburbs to roads to supermarkets to modern farming to plastics... Our whole way of life is powered by oil in one way or another. (Tying in to #1 (conyism), the Bush machine also has significant ties to the oil industry, but let's leave that in the cronyism bucket). Securing an unfriendly foreign source of oil is vital toward our future if we are to continue living how we live and not convert our wilderness into oil fields. These are complex topics. Read more. [4]

3. Preservation of Western civilization: You may not realize it, but we (the "west") have been in a war with Islam for centuries [5]. Our techniques have matured and advanced with the times, and we no longer go on honorable Muslim-killing crusades for Glory and God. Theirs have not, and there are large factions of Islam in the world that see a future with any infidels as totally unacceptable. At some point you have to recognize that the problem is not going away on its own. IT'S NOT BECAUSE OF OUR POLICIES and IT'S NOT BECAUSE OF OUR CULTURE. It's because of us. We're here. That's enough to royally piss them off. Israel is a gem of democracy in a desert of corrupt totalitarianism, religious extremism, and suffering. Iraq can be too. Without planting these seeds, the cancer of fanatical Islam will inevitably spread unchecked and take over the entire world by numbers and by force. Credit the Bush administration for recognizing these truths at some level, even if they are mostly just fallout from Cronyism and Oil reasons. Sit complacent watching Dancing With the Stars on TV with pacifist stars in our eyes, and you are just dying slowly one day at a time.

Ignorant people like you are quick to blame the Jews for the world's problems. The thing is, if the Jews weren't there, you'd find somebody else (Blacks, Atheists, Psychics, Witches, ...). Eventually you could eliminate everybody in the world except for the people just like you and the Islamic fanatics. You'd find you still have some pretty serious problems. So go eliminate the Islamic fanatics. You'd finally be all alone and happy with your own people. And yet still... You would destroy your world around you because rather than looking at yourself and the possibly disastrous consequences of your behavior, you would rather find more false gods to blame your suffering on until your entire civilization collapsed.

[1] http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/presiden/speeche s/eisenhower001.htm
[2] http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/hackingdemocracy/ index.html
[3] http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-723679120 7107726851&q=hacking+democracy
[4]

Basically, it says if you maintain personal information of California residents and if that info *might* be compromised, then you *must* notify all affected parties. The information includes first name (or initial) and last name, plus one or more of SSN, driver's license #, CC number, bank account, and a few others.

The fine for failure to notify is $10,000 *per account*. The first big story on this was a few months after the law became effective. A consultant for Wells Fargo (I think), took home (on a laptop) info on 50,000 high level accounts to do marketing analysis. The laptop was stolen (but recovered). Wells Fargo was all over the evening news telling everyone in California that they had screwed up. Why? They were looking at a potential fine of $500,000,000, that's why.

Since then, there have been many breakins/screwups that have been announced by national and multinational corps. because some of the data was about California residents. Personally, I consider this a Very Good Thing®. Too bad they don't have similar fines connected with producing broken/fraudulent voting systems.

If the compromised data might contain anything covered by CA AB 700, Salvance's friend should, at the very least, write a letter to his boss (and boss's boss, etc. if necessary) informing them of the company's extreme exposure on this matter. He just might save them from self-disctructing.

===
HBO: Hacking Democracy
Be afraid. Be very afraid.

If you have some time, go drop a note to HBO at their feedback site. Make it polite and show that you appreciate HBO's support of US democracy. We really need more skepticism and scrutiny in the mass media.

If you want to believe that some massive right-wing conspiracy

Allow me to trot out a Paul Kruman quote (from the yet-another article "The Smoke Machine", collected in The Great Unraveling): "In a way, it's a shame that so much of David Brock's Blinded by the Right: The conscience of an ex-conservative is about the private lives of our self-appointed moral guardians. Those tales will sell books, but they may obscure the important message: That the 'vast right-wing conspiracy' is not an overheated metaphor but a straightforward reality, and that it works a lot like a special-interest lobby."

has all voting machines wired to somehow vote republican, be my guest,

but even the most tinfoiled crazies must know how ridiculous that sounds.

You know, that "tinfoil" line has really jumped the shark. Almost as badly as the "jumped the shark" line.

Is there voter fraud with voting machines? Yes. Was there more voter fraud back in the days of paper ballots hand delivered by men on horses (and hand counted by the people who weren't smart/skilled enough to have real jobs)? Of course.

One more time: the trouble with the electronic voting machines in use is that they allow wholesale fraud. Back in the good old days fraud was a much more labor-intensive business.

If I wanted to read biased FUD all day long, I would watch network news, or the latest Michael Moore movie. Get real.

I saw a pre-release version of this documentary not long ago: Stealing America: Vote by Vote that talks about large numbers of reports of this vote-switching behavior from the 2004 election. All of the complaints were about Democrat votes being switched to Republican, none went the other way.

And speaking of documentaries there's another one making the rounds of HBO right now: Hacking Democracy.