Slashdot Mirror

Conservative operatives already know the best way to detect fraud (hint: if you are a democratic voter living in a democratic district in a battleground state, you are committing fraud). After all, we all know that voting fraud only comes from the democrats.
,bR> Voting suppression, on the other hand, comes from the republicans. Too bad they don't just cancel each other out.

http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-72591227/

-----It was clear he violated his probation from the beginning.
---The beginning of what? What were the terms of his probation? If it's so "clear" why are the terms of his violation sealed from public view?'

From the La Times:
"Nakoula, who was on supervised release from a 2010 conviction for bank fraud, faces eight charges of probation violation, including making false statements to authorities about the film.

When probation officials questioned him about the video, Nakoula allegedly claimed his role was limited to writing the script, and denied ever using the name “Sam Bacile” in connection to the film, Dugdale said.

Dugdale said there is evidence Nakoula’s role in making “Innocence of Muslims” was “much more expansive” than penning the script. Prosecutors said Nakoula could face new criminal charges for lying to federal officials."

------It's very important for Muslims across the world to understand that he was NOT arrested and jailed for the CONTENT of that movie

----You know who believes that statement? Approximately no-one. Are you SERIOUSLY claiming that had the protestors not claimed that movie was provoking them that he would be in jail, or even in trouble? Lots of other terrible movies are made every day and the producers run free to make more.

I believe that statement because it is true. Don't believe me? There is absolutely nothing in the Prosecutors statements about why he was arrested that had anything to do with the CONTENT of that movie. It's because he lied, repeatedly, to officials. This is exactly my point. Some people are so willing to believe conspiracies that they refuse to look at what is so obvious right there before them. Read this article and tell me his arrest had anything to do with the CONTENT of that movie:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/09/nakoula-basseley-nakoula-aliases-innocence-muslims.html

----He was jailed EXACTLY because of the content of the movie. He is being punished to try and appease the protestors.
--You know what other countries are doing by way of thanks? Jailing some guy who ripped up a bible in Egypt. Is this really the road we want to go down?

Did the guy who ripped up the Bible violate the terms of his parole? Do they even have parole there? If not, it was most likely because of blasphemy laws. The fact that the Egyptian authorities are stupid for enforcing blasphemy laws, while our authorities are not stupid for enforcing parole violations, is none of my concern.

http://articles.latimes.com/2004/apr/13/business/fi-rup13.11

And finally, I'm not trying to troll here, but I can't help but wonder how all of this would be playing out if Google had patented every trivial feature of their map and navigation software like Apple does for all of its apps. That would certainly have made this scenario a hell of a lot more interesting.

You can tell what a company finds important from what they patent. Google has a lots of patents regarding maps like a patent on ad technology that inserts ads in its Street View mapping images and a patent to use location data in ads. Those are the things Google wants access to, those were probably on the demand side in the Google v. Apple map negotiations. Now in the short term iOS users might be worse off in some cases, in the long term it might be worth it.

Reaction time to a specific, anticipated event, you're likely right. But there's one crucial element to navigation that humans can do that computers currently can't - make arbitrary, seemingly illogical decisions in the heat of the moment. Take GP's hypothetical about the cliffside road - most humans, thanks to self-preservation instinct, will choose to rear-end the other car rather than drive off the ledge; what would a computer that is programmed to "avoid contact with other cars at all costs" do in that situation? Hyperbole aside, there's no way of knowing until we put one in that real world situation.

Yes. Humans would never drive off a cliff, thanks to this self-preservation instinct. A self-driving car, on the other hand, could make such mistakes, because the engineers would never think of a scenario slashdotters come up with 5 seconds after seeing a story about self-driving cars. They would certainly never put their algorithms to the test. If it compiles, ship it. Right?

Relevant quote from the last link:

So confident is Volvo in this safety mechanism, it says that if the lead vehicle were to drive off a cliff, the next vehicle could stop before reaching the edge.

Romney wants windows that open in jet airplanes too. He cannot have everything he wants.

“When you have a fire in an aircraft, there’s no place to go, exactly, there’s no — and you can’t find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don’t open. I don’t know why they don’t do that. It’s a real problem. So it’s very dangerous.

Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-romney-beverly-hills-fundraiser-20120922,0,2317962.story

Yes, it's off topic, but I'm not the one bringing in the politics.

No, but global warming is threating the viability of the cacao growing areas, messing up the rainfall patterns.

Bull. We're panicking enough about the bacon, let's not make shit up.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/et-cetera/global-warming-could-make-chocolates-expensive/articleshow/11266989.cms

http://www.ibtimes.com/global-warming-makes-chocolate-dearer-322831

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/feb/10/local/la-me-gs-valentines-day-destroyed-by-climate-change-20120210

This year the price of feed for livestock is high due to the drought across most of the midwest. The majority of crops that did survive through the summer heat did not produce grain. Much of the corn crop that did not produce ears was chopped for silage to be used as feed. This has resulted in a shortage of available corn.
For those that say that the cattle should be returned to the natural ways and graze on pasture land, you might want to read the news http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-nebraska-wildfires-20120902,0,2350133.story, and that is just one of the fires. In Nebraska for example much of the pasture land has been burned this summer due to wildfires that have been started due to extremely dry conditions and dry lightning. This further cuts the supply of feedstuffs for cattle.
Most farmers and ranchers, rather than just sending the animals to slaughter, have begun to search for alternative feeds. They are not necessarily going to continue this feeding practice indefinitely.

Previous attempts by Chinese researchers haven't been as successful: http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/16/news/la-heb-eel-penis-spa-urethra-20110916

This is what AC is referencing. 7th paragraph down.

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-romney-beverly-hills-fundraiser-20120922,0,2317962.story

“I appreciate the fact that she is on the ground, safe and sound. And I don’t think she knows just how worried some of us were,” Romney said. “When you have a fire in an aircraft, there’s no place to go, exactly, there’s no — and you can’t find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don’t open. I don’t know why they don’t do that. It’s a real problem. So it’s very dangerous. And she was choking and rubbing her eyes. Fortunately, there was enough oxygen for the pilot and copilot to make a safe landing in Denver. But she’s safe and sound.”

Sadly, this isn't an Onion article.

When you have a fire in an aircraft, there's no place to go, exactly, there's no - and you can't find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don't open. I don't know why they don't do that. It's a real problem. So it's very dangerous.

Clearly, Romney is an expert on these things, so I hope they take his input seriously in the design phase. We wouldn't want future astronauts dying from not being able to open their windows.

(yes, I know I'll be moderated down for this. but I've got karma to burn - even if I can't get oxygen at 30,000 feet to burn it with)

Really?

http://www.isna.net/events/Special-Announcement/ISNA-Statement-on-Profane-Video-of-Prophet-Muhammad.aspx

Note it leads with condemning the video, the half way through mentions that their was some violence in response. Two sentences mentioning the violence is enough since then it is back to condemning the "extremists" who made a video. Nowhere does it say anything like "The people commiting this violence are abusing the name of Islam and their actions show that they are not true followers of Mohammad."

Contrast with a random google example of another relgion responding to violence carried out by people calling themselves members of it: http://articles.latimes.com/1987-11-16/news/mn-14195_1_catholic-bishops

It's not like doctors and hospitals have prices for (non-emergency) procedures, tell you what those prices are in advance, tell you what the procedures they will be performing on before in advance, and get agreement on price before doing anything.

They are starting too. Ironically, it seems like Obamacare is indirectly the cause of this change.

Except there has been no recent study showing that some of them actually are Joan of Ark and / or Napolean.

Acupuncture, always labeled an Alternative Medicine, does have such a study.
http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-acupuncture-works-above-placebo-effect-for-chronic-pain-study-shows-20120913,0,3155965.story

TBH I would not be surprised if there was some feud between them and he just went full retard.

Nah, he was full retard from day one. http://articles.latimes.com/2010/mar/28/nation/la-na-hometown-santa-fe28-2010mar28

My favorite parts: "waves of nausea, vertigo, body aches, dizziness, heart arrhythmia and insomnia returned -- all, he says, because she was using an iPhone, a laptop computer, a wireless router and dimmer switches." To stress this: he gets that sick from DIMMER SWITCHES 30 FEET AWAY. And it would have to be a damn fantastic dimmer to have wi-fi.

And: "Firstenberg said he was staying with friends and occasionally sleeping in his car." A dimmer switch in a house about 30 feet from his makes him sick, but he can drive (I assume) and sleep in a car about a yard from an internal combustion engine, alternator, and a lead acid battery.

Wasn't there also some public school district that was suffering legal trouble from the same claims?

You were probably thinking of: http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2012/07/wi-fi_lawsuit_against_portland.html

Or maybe: http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2003/10/60769

But there's been a LOT of places suffering legal trouble: http://www.smdp.com/resident-files-1-7b-claim-with-city-hall/

If you want to find more, look up Magda Havas. She's making a nice profit being an "expert" on how Wifi is killing you and UR BABIEZZZZZ. Then there's Barrie Trower. I haven't heard much about him except that he adds some conspiracy theory to the mix and meets interesting people like the king of Botswana (the country is a republic).

or pour shit in my drinks.

Ahem... What now? They pour substances into your drinks? Are you expected to continue drinking them?

More bullshit from the TSA -- they have unilaterally claimed the power to check any liquid even after the security checkpoint. The procedure, as described here, involves holding a swab over the opening to the liquid container and then putting a drop of some kind of solution on the swab, presumably to look for some kind of chemical reaction. There could have been some confusion at some point either with the victim of this procedure (thinking the TSA agent was adding a reagent directly to their beverage), or with the TSA goon themselves (actually adding the reagent directly to the victim's beverage). More at Google.

enjoy:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-tactics-20120916,0,1457710.story
There's bad on both sides.
BTW, this article ran in the Los Angeles Times, which isn't exactly a bastion of GOP thought.

twice as many? wow you did vote for Obama... need some sugar for that cool aid?

I can see why you post at -1... Try this on for size:

The California Science Center â"Endeavour's final home â" has agreed to replant twice as many trees along the route
 

  http://articles.latimes.com/2012/sep/03/local/la-me-shuttle-trees-20120904

And yes, as a matter of fact I DID vote for Obama, along with 75% of everyone who could be bothered to get off their asses and get out and vote. Are you trying to say President Palin was a better choice? And brace yourself, cause we're just about guaranteed 4 more years. And demographics are changing so quickly that every expert says the Republican party will cease to be viable on a national level by 2020, so get ready for them to massively change what they pretend to stand for.

Having actually seen the movie, it much ado about nothing. Yes, it is offensive in a Monty Python sort of way. Think of the movie "Life of Brian" but done on a shoe string budget with bad acting, horrible editing, and obvious overdubbing.

Heck, that is giving too much credit to the producers and making the "Life of Brian" seem worse than it really is. Well, blessed are the cheese makers.....

You might get a kick out of the crazy people and their idea behind the film, to smoke out terrorists in southern california.

It's like they have never heard of .... masks! Disguise! "Hey look at that bigfoot! Hey, he's destroying the camera! Why would he do that?"

Just lookout for teen drivers eating Jacklinks beef jerky!

Poster #41320397 here.

I kind of like what Children and Young Persons Act 1933 says.

Better to get it from the definitive source than Wikipedia.

I don't know if there is something similar in place here in America. It mentions victims, witnesses, and suspects, but is limited to children apparently. I so wish we could extend that to all persons rather than just children. Because it doesn't seem like it takes much to tarnish someone's good name by mentioning them on the news. Notice the exemptions which I won't bother pasting here.

A conviction remains on that individual's record even after appeal? What sort of appeal are you referring?

Anything from the Appeal Court at the High Court, to the Supreme Court, to the House of Lords (very rare this happens now), to European Court of Human Rights (even more rare than HL because the lower courts have got themselves a loophole that they can withhold their judgements and prevent cases being *accepted* by the ECHR).

If someone appeals their original conviction, and it is overturned (maybe they were innocent?), do they still have that mark on their record?

Because the original allegation involves children, yes.

Check out Ex-football player, wrongly jailed for rape, wants money from state

Less than that. I know of two incidents with airplanes being flown into buildings or stolen since the TSA came on the job. http://www.nycaviation.com/2012/07/did-someone-try-to-steal-a-skywest-plane-in-utah-last-night/#.UFJLL41lTng http://articles.latimes.com/2002/jan/06/news/mn-20751

Poster #41320397 here.

I kind of like what Children and Young Persons Act 1933 says. I don't know if there is something similar in place here in America. It mentions victims, witnesses, and suspects, but is limited to children apparently. I so wish we could extend that to all persons rather than just children. Because it doesn't seem like it takes much to tarnish someone's good name by mentioning them on the news. Notice the exemptions which I won't bother pasting here.

A conviction remains on that individual's record even after appeal? What sort of appeal are you referring? If someone appeals their original conviction, and it is overturned (maybe they were innocent?), do they still have that mark on their record? Check out Ex-football player, wrongly jailed for rape, wants money from state

No. The Samsung Galaxy SIII, by itself, outsold the iPhone 4S (again, by itself) in August.

Very likely 4S sales were lower due to iPhone 5 anticipation, but it doesn't change the fact that "herd mentality" applies equally to both sides now whether you're comparing OS or the two leading handsets.

Apparently they have been using twitter to communicate...
http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-godaddy-sites-down-20120910,0,3446985.story

My domain is down, because I use their DNS (not their hosting), very irritating!

please show me scientific evidences that causes any harm in the person eating the pork.

There have been dozens of studies showing that the routine use of antibiotics to increase growth rate are causing infections in people. One Google search showed a huge list. Here's an article about one study. I mean seriously. Who could think feeding antibiotics to food animals by default instead of to treat a disease would have good results for society.

That said, raw pork is quite safe and yummy.

Steve Jobs (Wikipedia): According to Wozniak, Jobs told him that Atari gave them only $700 (instead of the offered $5,000), and that Wozniak's share was thus $350. Wozniak did not learn about the actual bonus until ten years later, but said that if Jobs had told him about it and had said he needed the money, Wozniak would have given it to him.

Breaking Bad ("Say My Name" Recap): When Walter tries to browbeat Jesse into staying, the young man will have none of it. He even walks away when Walter tells him he won't get a nickel.

You don't understand how military retirement pay (don't call it a pension) works.

When a retired military person dies, so does his retirement pay. Right that second (although the service is usually kind enough to round the last retirement check out to the end of the month .. but no guarantees).

They came up with "Survivors Benefits", where you basically buy an insurance policy using part of the retirement pay that will pay the surviving spouse 50% of the retired service member's retirement pay.

At first it was a TERRIBLE scam, 50% of your retirement pay now for 50% back after you die. But they fixed that and these days
it's not such a bad deal. Unless the spouse dies first of course, in which case Uncle Sam keeps it all.

And no, the President nor anyone else could've done squat. Congress could've passed an appropriation to give the families something, I suppose.

NASA employees have life insurance available, but I suspect it isn't extended to the astronauts. Here's an article from 2003 discussing it:

http://articles.latimes.com/2003/feb/10/nation/na-insure10

Meanwhile, you can still get those covers:

http://moonpans.com/signed/apollo_11_signed_cover.htm

"heros that are sent to war, they die and their families get a flag"

Wrong.

An LA times article on war death benefits:
http://articles.latimes.com/2003/apr/05/news/war-benefits5

And the department of veterans' affairs if you want to go reading more: http://www.vba.va.gov/survivors/agencies.htm

These things aren't generally just a flat lump sum payment. And a lot of it I'm sure military members can opt out of, probably for some negligible increase in base pay. Military families aren't left to twist in the wind when their service member dies. If you're father dies in military service, that shouldn't be treated like a winning Mega Millions lottery ticket. As in any job, if you're in the military it is up to you to ensure the financial security of your family. Many of the benefits are opt-in benefits like very cheap life insurance, matched savings plans, etc. If you are the type who doesn't save a dime, lives at the very edge of your means, and doesn't contribute to any kind of retirement/life insurance fund... you've screwed your families future over, not the U.S. Government. Even in the worst case scenario, families are at least compensated sufficiently (financially) for a few years. No amount of money is going to replace a lost loved one on an emotional scale, but seems to me that the U.S. military does a good job of making it plenty financially survivable.

Rather unfortunate timing for the headline of this article, considering today's news item about a literal bulldozer that did not fall short...

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/middleeast/la-fg-israel-corrie-verdict-20120829,0,4476903.story

It appears that the Russians are working to restore and update the Russian nee Soviet state's ability to conduct political warfare, which was quite powerful. Some of the lies they spread have yet to die down. Since the Russian state seems to heading back towards Soviet methods and attitudes, everyone should be concerned.

Soviets Sponsor Spread of AIDS Disinformation

A Soviet political warfare manual comments on 'socialist education'

Soviet methods did not spare their allies.

A Portrait of Stalin: Secret Police

As far as I have heard, it has been limited to federally controlled areas like National parks.

There is much more going on. Examples of federal efforts as well others.

You're an idiot. We get it. Next you'll be question evolution, quantum mechanics and whether the Earth is round.

It's very well established that Americans avoid even going to doctors because they can't afford to pay for either what must come out of their pockets, whether they have insurance or not because it's that uncertain. They don't even get up to bat to be denied.

• 
  Major Medical Mystery (sic) why people avoid doctors

  Do Americans avoid going to a doctor because it will cost them money?

  Avoiding the Doctor's Office

And yes Virginia, Americans absolutely do get turned away from hospitals and doctors:

• 
  Uninsured Americans Still At Risk For Getting Turned Away By Hospitals
  Critically ill uninsured Americans still at risk of being turned away from hospitals despite law
  Ambulance Diversion

People to do manage to get care also go bankrupt primarily due to medical bills (not covered by insurance)

• 
  Medical bills prompt more than 60 percent of U.S. bankruptcies

  Plaintiff challenging healthcare law went bankrupt – with unpaid medical bills

  Towering Medical Bills Leave Many Americans Bankrupt

The fact is that America has the WORST HEALTHCARE SYSTEM of ANY developed or even most developing countries. The only par countries are the lower rungs of developing countries and undeveloped countries. Other far less wealthy nations manage to deliver far better healthcare than the US. I know personally because I've lived overseas in these countries.

Your ship has sailed for specious and ignorant rhetorical tricks and debating games. The facts are clear.

BTW I don't even bother getting health care in the US any long. I have group insurance that covers international providers so my primarily care doctors are in Mexico, Thailand and Germany now. Even with airfare it's still cheaper, less stressful, better quality and more certain than getting the same in the USA now! I only carry insurance in the US for being hit by a bus - my group plan is set up to transport me overseas once I'm stable in such situations (again still cheaper than standard US insurance).

ObarmaCare is a day late and dollar short as far as I'm concerned. But the Republican alternatives are even much worse. Basically criminality of political and immorality of leadership dominates both parties completely. To regain my trust it will take decades of a clean track record and that clock has yet to even start.

http://mediamatters.org/research/2005/09/13/religious-conservatives-claim-katrina-was-gods/133804

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laplaza/2010/01/us-televangelist-pat-robertson-links-haiti-earthquake-to-pact-with-devil.html

""Did God have anything to do with Katrina?," people ask. My answer is, he allowed it and perhaps he allowed it to get our attention so that we don't delude ourselves into thinking that all we have to do is put things back the way they were and life will be normal again."

Here's an interactive map maintained by the LA Times showing homicides in the greater LA area.

http://projects.latimes.com/homicide/map/?year=All+years

The large concentration of deaths is Compton/Watts where there is a lot of illegal activity (gangs) and lots of illegal weapons. Random people get shot there all the time. It doesn't even make the headlines, unless it's a child.

Your are a privileged right wing arrogant asshole. You have no idea what it's like to live with real world gun violence in you community. The gang bangers make the cops look good, and the cops are not very trustworthy here in LA.

Without the government guns that you despise, the US would be like Mexico, with drug cartels routinely doing mass killings. You think you're tough, but your toy gun collection wouldn't protect you against professional gangsters. You depend on a system that you disrespect. You are as stupid as you look.

> I never said I did. I don't.

But that's the effect of Ryan's "Sanctity of Human Life" bill that he co-sponsored and the Texas GOP goal and the RNC goal in its platform for a constitutional amendment outlawing abortion by giving a fertilized egg 14th amendment rights. Which is all based upon Christian Fundamentalism, which you self identified with. I mean, come on, all I have to do is turn on the radio and listen to the preachers spout this stuff over the air on WARV, WEZE, and over shortwave for the international preachers. Huckabee basically came out and said that rape can be a good thing in his defense of Akin. http://articles.latimes.com/2012/aug/20/news/la-pn-huckabee-horrible-rapes-created-some-extraordinary-people-20120820

Huckabee is not exactly alone in his views.

I don't know what to say, man, but abolishing abortion with no exceptions means a victim of rape is forced to carry resulting pregnancy to term. With no exceptions for the health of the mother, tubal pregnancy abortions would be illegal too.

I think that's pretty callous and the only reason I can think of that people like Huckabee and the rest of the fundies think this way on abortion is that they can't, for all the tea in China, possibly put themselves mentally in someone else's shoes even for one second. Which is actually about as anti-Christian as one can get.

The truth table for this is pretty simple. I don't think I need to construct a formal syllogism, or write it out in symbolic logic, do I?

--
BMO

P.S. Ryan likes to think himself a pious Catholic. You can't be both Catholic and an Ayn Rand fan at the same time - they are mutually exclusive. Ayn Rand is closer to Anton LaVey than Catholicism. Christianity or Objectivism. Pick one and only one.

1. Innovation and the Economy: Democrats, More money into funding NSF, and Public Universities. Republicans, let the private market innovate themselves, allow competition to improve be the driving factor.

private markets havent innovated anything in a damn long time. Apple has sued the holy bejeezus out of every competetor to bring a new product to market, Harley Davidson lobbied for huge tarrifs in the 80's to prevent technologically superior motorcycles from ever landing in the hands of consumers. Lobbyists for major automotive manufacturers make sure chinese manufacturers like Cherry and French manufactureres like Pugot never see american markets while at the same time guaranteeing a smooth bailout if their ideology of SUV's during $5 a gallon gas summers doesnt turn out to be a profit machine.

point 2? a boldface lie. the republican posture on climate change is that its either not happening, not man made, or not reliably measured. In short, republicans arent doing shit to take care of this problem but ignoring it.

point 3 just regurgutates point 1 and is also patently false. Corporations dont invest in the future unless theyre getting a profit from it. Cleaner air and water are innovations to make life better for our children, but arent researched. Private corporations once again rely on patents and copyright to avoid innovation at most any cost because its expensive and unpredictable.

point 4. what the hell is biosecurity? Pandemics i understand however the most immediate vector for that appears to be intensive factory farming and genetic modification lately. Federally funded scientists are private scientists in most cases, the rosters of the FDA have quite a few monsanto and cargill employees.

point 5. Here in California vouchers have failed miserably. Theyre tucked into the coffers of a few millionaires and the students are shown the tests they take ahead of time to bolster their score, the "numbers", and in turn generate more funding from the federal governement and increased fees from parents. http://articles.latimes.com/2012/aug/17/local/la-me-crescendo-20120818

point 6. again, there are no invisible hands here. We either invest in science and technology to create and enhance alternative energy systems or we use up our remaining fossil fuels in the hopes some sort of blind god in a business suit will usher in our technological future. invisible hands make for a shit argument.

point 7. better safe than sorry is an excellent policy. Heavy regulation may mean Dow Corning executives will have to delay the next yacht, but it also means shit like prion induced BSE, salmonella and fecal coliform stay out of the food supply. remember "biosecurity"? you just made an argument to kill everyone after making an argument that a private drug scientist would help us after 15 minutes.

point 8. clean the water because the invisible hand has once again failed miserably. there is no market in cleaning up the superfund sites from big businesses. Telling people to buy water purification systems again uses the invisible hand to basically tell people the equality of all men as cited under the declaration of independence is just a fucking lie. the rich will drink pure water

They have already been testing complete autonomous cars.

Let us not forget about the first company to ever break the $1 trillion mark. That was the Chinese oil company PetroChina which did it on November 06, 2007 (I think that is the correct date it doesn't specify in the article so I used the date line). The value has since pulled back quite a bit to reasonable levels and most of the shares were still held by the government but it was the first company to hit the trillion dollar mark.

Dark cloud over good works of Gates Foundation

http://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-gatesx07jan07,0,290910,full.story

By Charles Piller, Edmund Sanders and Robyn Dixon Times Staff Writers

January 7, 2007
Ebocha, Nigeria â" Justice Eta, 14 months old, held out his tiny thumb.

An ink spot certified that he had been immunized against polio and measles, thanks to a vaccination drive supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

But polio is not the only threat Justice faces. Almost since birth, he has had respiratory trouble. His neighbors call it "the cough." People blame fumes and soot spewing from flames that tower 300 feet into the air over a nearby oil plant. It is owned by the Italian petroleum giant Eni, whose investors include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Justice squirmed in his mother's arms. His face was beaded with sweat caused either by illness or by heat from the flames that illuminate Ebocha day and night. Ebocha means "city of lights."

The makeshift clinic at a church where Justice Eta was vaccinated and the flares spewing over Ebocha represent a head-on conflict for the Gates Foundation. In a contradiction between its grants and its endowment holdings, a Times investigation has found, the foundation reaps vast financial gains every year from investments that contravene its good works.

In Ebocha, where Justice lives, Dr. Elekwachi Okey, a local physician, says hundreds of flares at oil plants in the Niger Delta have caused an epidemic of bronchitis in adults, and asthma and blurred vision in children. No definitive studies have documented the health effects, but many of the 250 toxic chemicals in the fumes and soot have long been linked to respiratory disease and cancer.

"We're all smokers here," Okey said, "but not with cigarettes."

The oil plants in the region surrounding Ebocha find it cheaper to burn nearly 1 billion cubic feet of gas each day and contribute to global warming than to sell it. They deny the flaring causes sickness. Under pressure from activists, however, Nigeria's high court set a deadline to end flaring by May 2007. The gases would be injected back underground, or trucked and piped out for sale. But authorities expect the flares to burn for years beyond the deadline.

The Gates Foundation has poured $218 million into polio and measles immunization and research worldwide, including in the Niger Delta. At the same time that the foundation is funding inoculations to protect health, The Times found, it has invested $423 million in Eni, Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and Total of France â" the companies responsible for most of the flares blanketing the delta with pollution, beyond anything permitted in the United States or Europe.

Indeed, local leaders blame oil development for fostering some of the very afflictions that the foundation combats.

Oil workers, for example, and soldiers protecting them are a magnet for prostitution, contributing to a surge in HIV and teenage pregnancy, both targets in the Gates Foundation's efforts to ease the ills of society, especially among the poor. Oil bore holes fill with stagnant water, which is ideal for mosquitoes that spread malaria, one of the diseases the foundation is fighting.

Investigators for Dr. Nonyenim Solomon Enyidah, health commissioner for Rivers State, where Ebocha is located, cite an oil spill clogging rivers as a cause of cholera, another scourge the foundation is battling. The rivers, Enyidah said, "became breeding grounds for all kinds of waterborne diseases."

The bright, sooty gas flares â" which contain toxic byproducts such as benzene, mercury and chromium â" lower immunity, Enyidah said, and make children such as Justice Eta more susceptible to polio and measles â" the diseases that the Gates Foundation has helped to inoculate him against.

Investing for profit

AT the end of 2005, the Gat

We have one billion chronically hungry people today and it's going to get far far worse in the coming decades. Man is more populous than the rat and is consuming the earth like a swarm of locusts consuming a crop field.

Your first sentence does not follow for your second.

There is more then enough food in the world today to feed the entire human race, plus some extra ones. Instead, most of it is wasted - not overconsumed - but wasted, because it's not possible to distribute it in an effective way.

Population crises are never going to be a problem because we straight up don't have to feed all the people in the world. We don't now, and that's not going to change in the forseeable future. And, it's not like starving people are able to swim across oceans or defeat a modern army, so the wealthy nations aren't going to be overwhelmed by the poor.

Additionally, let's suppose we did decide to feed everyone - which is a difficult endeavor. The infrastructure and education you need to make that a viable long term solution, empirically seems to have the side-effect of reducing population growth - if you succeed in preventing famine in an effective way, and start teaching farmers and educating women and children, then in every single place it's been tried, population growth levels off and then declines.

We have one billion chronically hungry people today and it's going to get far far worse in the coming decades. Man is more populous than the rat and is consuming the earth like a swarm of locusts consuming a crop field.

War is actually reducing population which helps keep the world alive longer. Beyond killing civilians and destroying infrastructure that supports higher birthrates, the military (US, Israel, possibly also the UK and NATO) has been using depleted uranium in most of its modern wars, so the likelihood of carrying babies to term decreases. There is also a much greater chance of mutations that result in a non-viable birth or a short-lived child.

In recent times depleted uranium has been used in Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. Depleted uranium is also the plan for Iran. While there is a short term goal in Iran, i.e. to destroy the existing nuclear energy/material infrastructure, the long term goal is to destroy the Iranian population's ability to reproduce.

http://articles.latimes.com/1989-06-09/local/me-1430_1_chernobyl-reactors-nuclear-explosion-radioactive

http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/sdcounty/article_6b8be5be-7239-5731-b5a0-4e2590e062bd.html

Thorium bed reactors are at best a useful stop gap not a replacement for fossil fuels that stopped forming 300 hundred million years ago when microbes learned to digest wood.

We at some point must settle on solar or geothermal. We should do this prior to polluting arable land in an inevitable chain of profit over prudence "mistakes".

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jun/08/business/la-fi-tn-apple-motorola-lawsuit-dismissed-20120608
Yes, you said Google but it is still relevant that Apple sued Motorola since it is the Motorola unit of Google that is suing Apple.

Well, going to Walmart can kill you too.

Besides, how much money are you going to spend to fight them in court? Me thinks, not much.

Joyent is preparing for an IPO.

This $499 amount reminds of a guy who "claimed" he invested $500 very early on in Facebook. Whether you believe his claim, or not, he really ended up being a pain in the ass for Facebook and ended up costing them a lot of money.

Now imagine a couple of hundreds (or dozens, I actually don't know the number) of account holders who "claim" they made the lifetime payment $499 as an investment in Joyent and as a very risky bet that the company was going to survive for a very long time (despite the clear evidence that most other internet startups were flaming out left and right). Those account holders could become very troublesome for Joyent. I don't expect many of them to sit still and do nothing when the VCs that invested at the same time are given a hundred-fold, or a thousand-fold, of what they invested initially.

This really has nothing to do with hardware costs. Joyent could have easily continued supporting these users for the next 5 to 10 years. Right now, the early investors, VCs, and employees, are jockeying for position and clarifying potential equity problems and potential obligations that could later on easily blow up in their face during an IPO.

2 ,12:38 p.m. Researchers at Harvard University have created a robot that can change color in seconds, allowing it to blend seamlessly into a background like a chameleon, or stand out so that it is easy to see. It can even glow in the dark, and change its temperature. These are just the latest additions to a family of rubbery, bendable robots first described in a 2011 paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by the Whiteside Group, a Harvard-based research group. The group was interested in creating a robot that was soft, rather than hard and breakable like most of the robots we know. And so they looked to the sea. This robot's design was inspired by invertebrates like squid and starfish and other animals with no hard skeletons. The squishy robot moves by having air pumped through small cylinders in its body, and is flexible enough to squeeze through a glass plate elevated just 2 centimeters above the ground in under a minute, according to a report in the BBC. To make this robot even more like the underwater creatures that inspired its design, Stephen Morin lead a team that added thin, flexible network of tubes just under the robot's "skin." Scientists pump different color dyes into the network of tubes, thereby changing the color of the robot. They can even create intricate patterns, and if they use a chemo-luminescent dye, make the the robot glow in the dark. The temperature of the fluids can also be controlled, so that the robot can be camouflaged in the infared spectrum too. The Journal Science has a wonderful video that shows the color changing robot in action, (plus awesome footage of a camouflaging octopus). That's all very neat, but is it practical? Well, it could be. For example, if you were trapped in a collapsed building, one of these squishy robots could be sent squeezing itself in. http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-camouflage-robot-20120817,0,308264.story

Assange would be considered a spy so they'd probably hang him, like they did the Rosenbergs.

According to an article in the New York Times (which I can't find right now, otherwise I'd link to it), nobody outside of the U.S. government/military has ever been prosecuted for publishing information leaked from the U.S. government/military. The prosecution have always backed down because they know they would have to argue that the First Amendment right to publish information that you have obtained about the government does not apply to whoever they're prosecuting, and that a jury may well decide that the First Amendment actually does matter after all. Numerous newpapers have published leaked information, and the New York Times and others actually conspired with Assange to publish the diplomatic cables etc. However, in Assange's case, it's possible that they just plan to put him in front of a military court with a predetermined judge and outcome.

Oh, here's a reference: "No journalist has been prosecuted for publishing leaked information under the Espionage Act." Though it seems a new game is afoot: "Why the WikiLeaks Grand Jury is So Dangerous: Members of Congress Now Want to Prosecute New York Times Journalists Too"

Interesting article about this that I saw mentioned the other day (the article was written in May).

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/may/05/business/la-fi-0506-golden-ticket-20120506