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My argument has a tacit inplication that "users" don't care about the extra freedoms granted by MIT/BSD. Here is my original quote:

Thus "most user friendly license" could have been amended "most friendly license for users who are not going to further develop the software and then convert their enhancements to a Proprietary license for their own financial betterment".

Also, BSD software that has been improved and re-released as Proprietary is not "user friendly" because it enables the business practice of "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish". Improvements to BSD software that are not re-released under a free license do not benefit users.

Thus, I stand by my assertion that GPL is the most "user" friendly license and will let the question of what the most "developer" friendly license is be a debate for another discussion.

And as far as the Windows BSD code that I was discussing, there is a tremendous write-up from one of the Microsoft employees at the time when they were developing the network stack here.

Golly. Talk about your basic police state.

Police STATE? It's becoming a police WORLD. I wrote a journal titled Police State: In USSA, cops hassle YOU! last year and Liberty? What liberty? three years ago. It only keeps getting worse.

56. But I'm a whippersnapper compared to my friend Ralph, who was on a Navy ship in WWII and introduced me to a lot of the hookers I know.

I wrote Growing up with computers when I was 53.

Damn now I feel old, thanks a lot...

The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect is a 1994 novel by Roger Williams. It deals with the ramifications of a super powerful computer that can alter reality after a technological singularity.

Must... learn... to stop... BITING...

What I'm trying to figure out (and what I'm diggibg through these comments for, maybe I should just RTFA?) is why wnyone would need or even want to block stegnographic data? Don't I have the right to keep my own secrets? Don't I have the right to keep my private phone calls private?

Doesn't the Constitution have any meaning whatever any more?

I know, it's the evil site, but you'll find every link I could find from the Timewatch team and the BBC. The Timewatch website gets daily podcats from the dig and hourly news bulletins, so this is no minor event.

Your history is a bit weak, young fellow. They came out first on LPs and 45s long before those godoffal eight tracks were ever foisted on a non-technical populace.

Eight tracks didn't become popular until just before 1970. "The Rolling Stones is the debut album by The Rolling Stones, released in the UK in April 1964."

Granted, the eight track tape was invented the same year, but they never got popular untile around 1970.

I was twelve when the Rolling tones came out. I never saw an eight track until maybe 1968 or 9. As the wiki article says, "8-track recorders had gained popularity by the early 1970s."

But once you buy from a digital store there is no reason ever buy the same content again.

There's no reason for me to buy a digital version of my old LPs either. I just sample the LP, burn it to CD, and rip that. Funny thing is, whenever someone mentions how good my car stereo sounds it's usually when I'm playing a CD that started life as an LP.

I'm waiting for the service that remembers all of the content I buy and lets me use it anytime I want.

I have it. It's buying CDs and LPs. When the CD starts skipping in the car it's time to duplicate it. Meanwhile the CDs have been ripped to MP3 and stored on the computer.

So, for now I'll stick with buying my digital tracks off of Amazon DRM free

With CD, cassette, and LP there's no need to worry about DRM. The link above about ripping from vinyl works for CD too, and will overcome any DRM the idiots at the record companies can come up with.

-mcgrew

Your history is a bit weak, young fellow. They came out first on LPs and 45s long before those godoffal eight tracks were ever foisted on a non-technical populace.

Eight tracks didn't become popular until just before 1970. "The Rolling Stones is the debut album by The Rolling Stones, released in the UK in April 1964."

Granted, the eight track tape was invented the same year, but they never got popular untile around 1970.

I was twelve when the Rolling tones came out. I never saw an eight track until maybe 1968 or 9. As the wiki article says, "8-track recorders had gained popularity by the early 1970s."

But once you buy from a digital store there is no reason ever buy the same content again.

There's no reason for me to buy a digital version of my old LPs either. I just sample the LP, burn it to CD, and rip that. Funny thing is, whenever someone mentions how good my car stereo sounds it's usually when I'm playing a CD that started life as an LP.

I'm waiting for the service that remembers all of the content I buy and lets me use it anytime I want.

I have it. It's buying CDs and LPs. When the CD starts skipping in the car it's time to duplicate it. Meanwhile the CDs have been ripped to MP3 and stored on the computer.

So, for now I'll stick with buying my digital tracks off of Amazon DRM free

With CD, cassette, and LP there's no need to worry about DRM. The link above about ripping from vinyl works for CD too, and will overcome any DRM the idiots at the record companies can come up with.

-mcgrew

That's true, but immaterial. I was talking about the future of stereo, not necessarily car stereo.

It's also the reason that eight tracks sucked so badly - they were supposed to be "for the car" so factory cartriges were inferior to cassettes and home made eight tracks, despite the fact that the transport speed was double the cassette and the tape width was also double.

-mcgrew

But some replacements go backwards, and there are some technologies that just died. I wrote an article a few years ago titled Useful Dead Technologies that highlighted some of them, albeit tongue in cheek. Lo and behold, two of them I mentioned, volume control knobs and flat cotton shoelaces, have come back in vogue.

When the tornado ripped through my neighborhood in 2006, I was out of power for a week. I sorely missed the gravity furnace with its power pile I'd had a few years earlier; the gas only fails when you don't pay the bill. I heated my apartment with the oven in my gas stove.

Of course, some old tech should die. Like the guillotine. Some should never have been born, like the eight track tape.

But if you're going to run a giant corporation or a country, you're going to need a mainframe, even though PCs are now more powerful than mainframes used to be. Face it, no matter how powerful your laptop is, somebody's going to need a great big giant one that stores a million times as much as it does and processes a million times as fast.

Hell, I bet a VAX wasn't powerful enough to run Vista! (Of course, now someone's going to prove me wrong, because I probably am).

-mcgrew

But some replacements go backwards, and there are some technologies that just died. I wrote an article a few years ago titled Useful Dead Technologies that highlighted some of them, albeit tongue in cheek. Lo and behold, two of them I mentioned, volume control knobs and flat cotton shoelaces, have come back in vogue.

When the tornado ripped through my neighborhood in 2006, I was out of power for a week. I sorely missed the gravity furnace with its power pile I'd had a few years earlier; the gas only fails when you don't pay the bill. I heated my apartment with the oven in my gas stove.

Of course, some old tech should die. Like the guillotine. Some should never have been born, like the eight track tape.

But if you're going to run a giant corporation or a country, you're going to need a mainframe, even though PCs are now more powerful than mainframes used to be. Face it, no matter how powerful your laptop is, somebody's going to need a great big giant one that stores a million times as much as it does and processes a million times as fast.

Hell, I bet a VAX wasn't powerful enough to run Vista! (Of course, now someone's going to prove me wrong, because I probably am).

-mcgrew

I hated it. I'm glad I didn't buy it or rent it.

That's why they hate the idea of P2P- if you find out it's crap you won't buy it. So in a sense I guess it does cost them a sale; or rather, costs them the proceeds they would get from stealing from you.

Back in the stone age when I was a teenager I learned to never buy an LP unless it was live, a "best of", a "greatest hits", or had heard it at a friend's house (or later if they played the whole thing on KSHE).

If I heard an album at a friend's and the whole thing rocked (Are You Experienced?) I'd buy more of that artist's stuff. Hendrix never got air play. The Yardbirds never got airplay. None of the bands that the locals covered ever got air play. Even back then, before the internet, they tried to shove dreck down our throats and failed miserably at it.

The RIAA labels have always shot themselves in the foot. Once as a teenager I was in a record store and there was some awesome music playing. "Wow, that's a great song!" I thought. Then the next song came on... just as good. And another and another. I asked the clerk "Wow, who's that? I want that album!"

"Led Zeppelin!" Led Zeppelin I had just come out that day. The critics panned it and none of the radio stations played it until KSHE came on the air.

And they call US thieves!

-mcgrew

1. After the President signs a bill, it is sent to the polls once a year to be voted on by the people. Any bill not recieving 50% of the popular vote will not become law.
   
2. All laws expire ten years after enactment, but can be reenacted if resubmitted and voted on by Congress, signed by the President, and voted up by the people.

"spear-chuckers"? You do realise, don't you, that the term "spear-chucker" is about as offensively and insultingly racist as you can get? You might as well quote the GNAA troll!

The political realm is still well in the hands of the digital immigrants

What, pray tell, is a "digital immigrant?" Ok, never mind, I know how to use wikipedia, although unfortunately the term "digital immigrant" is slashdotted (504 gateway timeout). No matter, Google works too.

The term is bullshit. I didn't grow up with computers, computers grew up with me. YOU are the immigrant. I've been around computers since before you were born. I used to get my electric bill on a hollerith card.

Your "digital natives" call me up asking for help with their computers!

I know all about young people. I used to be one. I was conceitedly naive, too, just like every young person who ever lived was.

I agree, it sure looks to me like McCain is going to be our next president. Obama's preacher is a racist, a white person voting for him would be like a black person voting for a white man whose preacher is a Klansman.

Hillary is just plain unlilkeable, taking votes away, even Democrat votes. Most Republicans hate her (because of her husband, who IMO was a good President esp. in comparison to our present Oil Baron Traitor in Chief) and won't vote for her, and I for one don't like her because her husband gave her the job of instituting national health care like the civilized world has and she botched it.

Myself, I'll be voting either Green or Libertarian, depending on who's on the ballot in Illinois. Mine will be a protest vote against our Corporate-owned government. We, the people, have been left out of the loop for far too long.

That said, there are a lot of seventy two year olds who ARE computer literate; I've met some. I gather there are a few on slashdot with low UIDs. I don't know about McCain but judging someone's computer literacy by their age is pretty ignorant.

BTW, I turn 56 next week.

-mcgrew

So I wrote a command-line registry editor (similar to reg.exe) in Javascript+WSH+WMI. I also used it to write a little utility that basically replicated the remote installation feature of SMS. Except mine doesn't break all the fucking time on networks that aren't always up (SMS server was separated from all the clients by a TACLANE that's only brought up as-needed).

Oh, and I wrote a DB app in Javascript that just happened to use a browser for a GUI (but there was no webserver middle-ware). Again, mostly because I loathe anything VB-related (such as VBA usually used to script Access). See http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2005/7/14/13942/7643 [kuro5hin.org].


Wouldn't it be more satisfying to smash your head in with a rock than program WSH/WMI?

Because by default, Windows 2K/XP comes with three scripting languages: cmd.exe (useful, but not COM-enabled), VBScript, and Javascript (well, technically it's "JScript", which is Microsoft's embraced and extended version of Javascript). I'd sooner scratch out my eyes than use VBScript for anything longer than five lines, so Javascript it is.

For example, some corporate environments think that disabling all the programs in system32 to be a "security feature"... which means you can't do things like fix corrupt registry entries in your own HKCU hive! So I wrote a command-line registry editor (similar to reg.exe) in Javascript+WSH+WMI. I also used it to write a little utility that basically replicated the remote installation feature of SMS. Except mine doesn't break all the fucking time on networks that aren't always up (SMS server was separated from all the clients by a TACLANE that's only brought up as-needed).

Oh, and I wrote a DB app in Javascript that just happened to use a browser for a GUI (but there was no webserver middle-ware). Again, mostly because I loathe anything VB-related (such as VBA usually used to script Access). See http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2005/7/14/13942/7643.

then you know what I do? I unplug the fscker, cancel my service [not that I'd deal with comcast in the first place] and go post on slashdot or something. it really isn't that important to watch TV

I know this is going to come as a shock to you non-geezers, but you can watch TV without cable! There's satellite TV (several providers IINM) and good old trusty rabbit ears (my rabbit ears are amplified and deliver a very good picture) or roof antenna.

When I was a kid we only had three channels, and that was in the St Louis Metro area! I'm in dinky little Springfield IL now, and I can pick up nine channels.

Yeah, I could get dozens of channels with cable but so what? When I had cable I didn't watch very many anyway. If there's a program on cable I want to watch I'll go to a bar (I'm usually in one anyway). I used to like The Discovery Channel before they started sucking. Instead of "The Andromeda Galaxy: little known secrets" now there's "Painting race cars: little known secrets". They have ESPN on and there's... championship POKER??? Pool? WTF is next, twiddly winks?

At least when I was a kid there was Ernie Kovacs and Red Skelton. You young whippersnappers don't know what you're missing.

If they impliment this I'm going to have to make another article alomg the lines of Good Riddance to Bad Tech about bad tech we SHOULD get rid of... maybe add it to Dog-Slow Technologies and rename the sucker.

-mcgrew

.. and if you have to walk, what are the odds a pub will be withing a couple of block of your house ?

Here in Springfield you can't throw a bottle without hitting a bar. There are over half dozen bars within a fifteen minute stagger from my house. Lots of mornings I have to walk to the bar before I can drive to work.

-mcgrew

The new definition for the word "addiction" is the same as the old word for "habituation". OK, what is the new word for physical addiction, like with heroin or alcohol, where you can die from not getting your drug?

If you take away my reefer or my internet or my writing I may be agitated and unhappy, but I can still function. Take away my coffee and I get headaches and can't do my job because I can't think straight. Take away Amy's booze and she sees snakes and thinks there's bugs crawling on her skin. What do you call THAT these days?

You can't get addicted to the internet, or evercrack, or your crackberry. Internet habituation sure sounds like an obsessive compulsive disorder, and in some cases may need treatment, but it's not a true addiction.

Like homosexuals purposely changed the word "gay" to no longer mean "happy and carefree", anti-drug zealots (NOT health care professionals) have changed the meaning of the word "addiction". But physical addiction is still a curse to those addicted to certain substances, like heroin, alcohol, tobacco, etc.

I'm not negating the power of habituation. When I gave up cigarettes in 1999 I was amazed that the habit was as strong as the physical withdrawal from that deadly awful drug.

The anti-drug monsters waging their "war on (some) drugs" are doing no favors to addicts or those in danger of addiction. IMO they are a far greater menace to society than the drugs and addicts they hate.

-mcgrew

You would offer a needle full of heroin to a junkie

No, trolls aren't to be feared, they're to be pitied. Here in Springfield we do our trolling offline.

Bread golems are to be feared.

"OHH GOD!!! IT'S KILLING ME! But it's so tasty and delicious... AAAHHHH!!! STOP!! NOOOO!!! Where's the butter?"

~ Oscar Wilde on Bread Golems

"In Pre-Soviet Russia, Trollstoy"

-mcgrew

No, trolls aren't to be feared, they're to be pitied. Here in Springfield we do our trolling offline.

Bread golems are to be feared.

"OHH GOD!!! IT'S KILLING ME! But it's so tasty and delicious... AAAHHHH!!! STOP!! NOOOO!!! Where's the butter?"

~ Oscar Wilde on Bread Golems

"In Pre-Soviet Russia, Trollstoy"

-mcgrew

I was in the service before you were born, young man. I served from 1971 to 1975. Nixon resigned the day I returned to the US from being stationed in Thailand.

Here is an account of that trip (I was there from August 1973 to August 1974) and here is another.

Sadly, I see you didn't get the "funny" mod you were shooting for. Better luck next time!

I was in the service before you were born, young man. I served from 1971 to 1975. Nixon resigned the day I returned to the US from being stationed in Thailand.

Here is an account of that trip (I was there from August 1973 to August 1974) and here is another.

Sadly, I see you didn't get the "funny" mod you were shooting for. Better luck next time!

Obvious, perhaps, but inaccurate. Some of us adopt some tech early and some tech late, depending on the tech. If there's a tool that's shown to be better in some way (smoother, faster, more comfortable) we'll adopt it. Some tech goes backwards. For instance, why would anyone trade a car stereo with a big fat volume knob for one with teeny buttons? Thankfully the volume knob has made a comeback, as has the flat shoelace.

Some tech is just too damned expensive new. I'd like an iPhone but they're just too damned pricey. Some tech comes from companies I'd rather spit dead rats than buy from - Sony and ATT come to mind.

Some tech is obviously not ready for use yet - any Mixrosoft x.0 release, for instance. I'll bet there aren't many early Windows adopters here, because everyone knows you don't buy a new Windows until at LEAST the SP1 service pack comes out fixing its most glaring errors.

Finally, there's a reason they call it "bleeding edge technology".

-mcgrew

PS Now get off my lawn you damned kids and no, you can't have your burlout back.

On very rare occasions, casinos have been known to offer versions such as "2 to 1 Blackjack" where the basic strategy player has an advantage without card counting, no matter how many decks are used.

...people wouldn't be writing articles lambasting their poor management and decision to relocate to one of the most expensive real estate markets in the USA, and they would have an easier time raising money, while also not needing so much of it. Jimbo's expense account doesn't help, either.

They obviously have never seen our cats. Stress reducers? I don't think so.

The study didn't say what caused the reduction in heart disease, and I agree that it probably isn't reduction in stress. My daughter's cat lives with me, and the damned thing is in heat and howled all night long last night. With that combined with the daylight savings time change I'm pretty damned tired right now.

I felt like killing the damned thing when it wouldn't shut up, but then my daughter would kill ME.

Also, if you can't afford new furniture you can't afford a cat. If you're looking to obtain one of these strange creatures, I wrote an article about the subject several years ago that you might find helpful.

While I would very much like to publish dead-tree books, I provide all my material online, free at least as-in-beer, so more readers can benefit from it than would be the case if I charged money for it. Another reason is that most traditional publishers would require that I assign them the copyrights to my books, something that I'm loathe to do.

But a fellow Kuro5hin member named lonelyhobo said:

You tried to say crawford would be (and is) well known for "living with schizoaffective disorder," which is something so plainly ridiculous I wonder if you've received any sharp blows to the head recently. You tried to cite your own absolutely unknown works on the internet to bolster your argument. You honestly think that a little piece of shit software or writing on the internet will get you known for any length of time or in any depth?...

Let's boil it down to something very simple (and very contrary to your personal outlook too, I'm sure): PUTTING SHIT ON THE INTERNET IS NOT AN ACCOMPLISHMENT. Not yours or mine or crawford's. The reason I can and do post the garbage I do on the internet is that I know it's completely meaningless.

But is that what it really means for writing to be notable? I claim that it's not. For one thing, there are many, many books published every year, that even manage to earn their publishers and authors some good money, but that are in no way notable or memorable. At best they're a pleasant way to pass the time.

In my writing, I aim to make a positive difference in the lives of others, whether they are fellow software engineers or fellow mentally ill people. And I have plenty of reason to believe that I have accomplished just that, and many times over.

A little while ago someone attempted to write up a Wikipedia article about me. Of course my many troll friends from Kuro5hin jumped all over it, vandalizing it - it seems I attended "the Batman school of junk touching" - and recommending it for deletion. In the deletion discussion the case was made that I wasn't notable, because not many publications written by others could be found in which my writing was discussed.

I mostly stayed out of the debate, but I did jump in a couple times to point out how hard I work to educate the public about mental illness. I have receved literally thousands of grateful email messages as a result - but for reasons that must be obvious, I couldn't post them.

The consensus of the debaters is that, because few others have discussed my work, I must not be notable enough to merit a Wikipedia article. Considering the difference I know my essays and articles have made in the lives of others, I assert that that is just plain wrong.

The Legislative branch passed the Bono act, despite the fact that the Constitution says "for limited times". The President (Clinton IIRC) signed it, despite the fact that the Constitution says "for limited times". The Supreme Court ruled that "limited" means whatever the other two branches want it to mean.

Since this is the case, it logically follows that your car can be searched without a warrant. I said more about it here a few years ago, and again here a couple of months ago.

Not that anybody ever listens to me...

You are correct, Dover was (is?) a MAC base. It was NOT the base with the B-52s. I'm not going to name that base.

This was between 1971 and 1975, Dover had 141s then. The C-5s were brand spanking new at the time.

I mentioned a C-5 simulator in some detail in a K5 story I wrote a few years ago. It was about the coolest thing I'd seen in my life, at least at the time it was.

No, Dover was (is?) a MAC (Military Airlift Command) base. The bombers were stationed on SAC (Strategic Air Command) bases. They did away with the SAC when the cold war ended.

I was at Utapao, Thailand, too. Utapao was a SAC base as well. I can't even find that one on Google Maps; they may have changed its name. It was a Thai navy base that we rented part of to bomb Vietnam from. I saw my first U2 at Utapao.

It's not far from Fuckit Island (spelled "Phuket" on the maps, the Thais have a different alphabet than us but it's pronounced "fuck it". Fuck It Island was hit by that Christmas tsunami a couple of years ago.

I saw technology in the USAF in the early seventies that's still classified today. Food for thought.

From the two linked diaries: The bhuddist priests do things that make Kwai Chaing Cane look like a clumsy dork is from the first link, I walked around the wall, and "click-click"- I was staring into the barrel of a shiny chrome .45 calibre automatic pistol. "Ow alai?" the gun's owner demanded, or "what do you want" in English is in the second.

No, Dover was (is?) a MAC (Military Airlift Command) base. The bombers were stationed on SAC (Strategic Air Command) bases. They did away with the SAC when the cold war ended.

I was at Utapao, Thailand, too. Utapao was a SAC base as well. I can't even find that one on Google Maps; they may have changed its name. It was a Thai navy base that we rented part of to bomb Vietnam from. I saw my first U2 at Utapao.

It's not far from Fuckit Island (spelled "Phuket" on the maps, the Thais have a different alphabet than us but it's pronounced "fuck it". Fuck It Island was hit by that Christmas tsunami a couple of years ago.

I saw technology in the USAF in the early seventies that's still classified today. Food for thought.

From the two linked diaries: The bhuddist priests do things that make Kwai Chaing Cane look like a clumsy dork is from the first link, I walked around the wall, and "click-click"- I was staring into the barrel of a shiny chrome .45 calibre automatic pistol. "Ow alai?" the gun's owner demanded, or "what do you want" in English is in the second.

That's so. But the fact is, when I smoked cigarettes and didn't have one, I'd probably have committed a felony to obtain my fix.

The fact that you had zero difficulty quitting pot should tell you something.

As an aside, Income tax was introduced as a small tax (I believe the original law set it at a flat rate of 7%) for the wealthy

My grandparents could remember a time without income tax. Grandpa was born in 1896, Grandma was born in 1903 shortly before the Wright brothers flew the first airplane. I may be old, but I'm not so conservative as to want to conserve everything, not even tech. I was 53 when I wrote Good Riddance to Bad Tech.

I maintain property tax, at least on one's home, is a bad idea. I also maintain that even though income tax is historically new, it's still the least onerous of all taxes. You need your home all your life, and as a geezer I can tell you that there's no way in hell anyone can plan their whole life out. Shit happens.

And the other half of the sum is Project Gutenberg, Googles idea to scan every book and make them searchable, mazn and the Long Tail, "blogs" and sites with articles such as this (go read it, it will change your mind forever), torrent sitrs where users post cinematic rarities that people loved and lost, or yearn to discover. And that's just off the top of my stoned and drunk head.

If everyone... Everyone has Free access to that, and Free publishing, then the world is heading towards interesting times.

There is some evidence of this in the leaked Windows 2000 source code: http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/2/15/71552/7795 Microsoft seems to put hacks in their kernel to allow certain programs to function instead of the other way around.

Which "sacred human rights" you're talking about that the government is violating (which I presume to mean "is violating unconstitutionally")?

You might want to read this old journal from last month where I chronicle how my fourth amendment rights against unwarranted search were violated TWICE last year. Or would you posit that it's OK for the police to search YOUR garage without a warrant or even your knowlege because a strange woman, who had not been accused of any crime by anyone, had been prowling around the neighborhood and may have been hiding there without your knowlege?

I wrote Liberty? What liberty? three years ago, and things have only gotten worse since then.

-mcgrew
(my latest journal mentions the RIAA. I'm sure to garner a few more freaks with it...)

Come on man, I'm trying to quit!

The Earth's climate changes in response to external forcing, including variations in its orbit around the Sun (orbital forcing),[13][14][15] volcanic eruptions,[16] and atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. The detailed causes of the recent warming remain an active field of research, but the scientific consensus[17][18] is that the increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases due to human activity caused most of the warming observed since the start of the industrial era. This attribution is clearest for the most recent 50 years, for which the most detailed data are available. Some other hypotheses departing from the consensus view have been suggested to explain the temperature increase. One such hypothesis proposes that warming may be the result of variations in solar activity.[19][20][21]

None of the effects of forcing are instantaneous. The thermal inertia of the Earth's oceans and slow responses of other indirect effects mean that the Earth's current climate is not in equilibrium with the forcing imposed. Climate commitment studies indicate that even if greenhouse gases were stabilized at 2000 levels, a further warming of about 0.5 C (0.9 F) would still occur.[22]

The Earth's climate changes in response to external forcing, including variations in its orbit around the Sun (orbital forcing),[13][14][15] volcanic eruptions,[16] and atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. The detailed causes of the recent warming remain an active field of research, but the scientific consensus[17][18] is that the increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases due to human activity caused most of the warming observed since the start of the industrial era. This attribution is clearest for the most recent 50 years, for which the most detailed data are available. Some other hypotheses departing from the consensus view have been suggested to explain the temperature increase. One such hypothesis proposes that warming may be the result of variations in solar activity.[19][20][21]

None of the effects of forcing are instantaneous. The thermal inertia of the Earth's oceans and slow responses of other indirect effects mean that the Earth's current climate is not in equilibrium with the forcing imposed. Climate commitment studies indicate that even if greenhouse gases were stabilized at 2000 levels, a further warming of about 0.5 C (0.9 F) would still occur.[22]

What freedom is it you are lacking?

Freedom of choice for one. I can't legally grow a certain species of plant, or posess it, or smoke its dried buds. I don't have the right to bear arms; I must get permission to even own a firearm. If I walk down the street of any city carrying a shotgun, I will be jailed. The police can search my property without a warrant, and in fact did twice last year.

"Hate crime" laws mean you don't have freedom of speech.

I think I already linked this old K5 article Liberty? What liberty?

Our political dissidents are not assassinated, or disappeared

Three words: Martin Luther King.

We can speak out, clearly and loudly against the government

If you speak out loudly and clearly against one of the corporations that own the government you'll be hit with a SLAPP suit.

You can apply for any job you want, and not be worried the government will blackball you and prevent it.

You might want to read some history. The history I refer to happened within my lifetime.

Are there abuses? Absolutely. Gitmo, the No Fly List, and many other things are not as they should be

Well, you'll get no argument from me there.

Sure, I have to pay taxes

"Freedom" is freedom OF, not freedom FROM. And just because you don't want to engage in a particular activity you have no freedom to do doesn't mean you're free. That K5 article is about three years old, things have gotten worse in the meantime.

Nothing you do that doesn't harm me should be illegal.

-mcgrew

I'm sorry you're just too jaded to appreciate that those were the intentions and those intentions have been perverted.

Actually I can't argue with that at all. In fact I wrote a K5 article a few years ago that expoused exactly that sentiment.

Marijuana definitely lends itself to compulsive use

I've noticed that people with obsessive-compulsive disorder are drawn to it. You had no trouble quitting, that should tell you something about those who do have trouble quitting.

Of the people I know who have or had trouble quitting, every one of them started smoking it as a teenager. I do not advocate the use of pot or any other non-prescribed psychoactive drug by any non-adult.

It can be habituating but it does not follow the medical definition of addictive. I've herad Everquest called "addictive", this is clearly a misuse of the term. As to the orange juice, drink it every morning for a year and try to tell me you don't miss it when it's gone!

Caffiene is indeed physically addictive. If you've read my K5 treatise How to quit smoking cigarettes you'll see a journal of my own struggle with an addiction (now butt-free for eight years). As mentioned in the article, I found the habituation to be as bad as the actual physical addiction. However, lets not call a spade a "pointy shovel". Habituation is not addiction, and you can't get addicted to Everquest.

I bet I could go off caffeine longer and with significantly less effort than you could go off pot. Of course, you could probably go off sex much longer than I could go off of caffeine... ;)

I'd give up the pot way before I gave up coffee. I can't function without coffee, and I don't have pot very often these days, I can't afford it. And I could go without sex longer than I could coffee, although I damned sure wouldn't want to!

There's another thing, people talking about "sex addiction" or "food addiction". That's just absured. Those are bodily functions, hard-wired into our being, that our species wouldn't have survived without.

If I were you, I'd look into a weird treatment... hookworms.

It's unorthodox, weird, and kinda dirty. But if you need seed worms, there's people still doing it. It seems to knock off autoimmune diseases (in his case, asthma).

His unscientific theories are interesting, and he isnt a quack trying to sell something.

Well, we could go nuclear

Nuclear waste needs to be stored forever. I don't know if that's worse than emmissions and global warming or not; I'm just a layman.

By the time fusion happens, all our present tech will be obsolete anyway.