Slashdot Mirror

You want to claim the origins of liberalism for the American Libertarians

I want to make no such claim, I am stating what liberalism used to mean before others distorted the meaning. Back when the Founding Fathers used it there was no qualification to liberal or liberalism. To them liberalism meant liberty and small government. You are making the claim as to w2aht it means not me. Only now you're using "Lockean Liberalism". I dare you to find any qualifications to "liberal" such as "Classical" or "Lockean" used by Jefferson, Madison, or any of the other Founding Fathers. Heck, even Onelook defines liberalism as "an economic theory advocating free competition and a self-regulating market and the gold standard". Looking at the first three links to online definitions, American Heritage Dictionary, Encarta® World English Dictionary, and Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary also define it that way.

Falcon

"Maybe you're thinking of a different Moore's law?"

Nope, I have the right Moore's Law, it's just been misquoted so many times in the media that it has become doubling clock speed and not transistors.

If transistors is where performance is at then CPU marketers might want to start letting people know, because when average joe sees an ad for the new AMD 3.4ghz and he's already sitting in front his 5 yr old Pentium 4 3ghz he's not going to be thinking "new computer time", he's still waiting for that 5ghz.

That provided 20 million dollars or so of value to the Russian space program. You should be thankful that it's actually getting used, even if just for space tourism.

Nice of all these useful idiots to fund the slow Russian take over of the ISS. If Russia has a problem coming up with 20 Million maybe they should step aside and let the EU run the place permanently.

But I agree its probably a huge waste of time at this juncture as far as real science goes. Adding Tourism does nothing to make me even vaguely "thankful".

The money would be better spent developing a "runway to orbit" capability: http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/050527/050527_spacecom_whiteknight_hmed2p.hlarge.jpg

Unfortunately, I think there are some here in the US that are that insane. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32991672/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

kill/invade/torture/ for faith, whereas your decent religious people do it all the time.

Only a handful of individuals in remote areas of backwards countries have killed/invaded/tortured for faith in recent memory. Their religions don't consider them "decent religious people" at all, even when denouncing these apostates and their tactics costs the denouncers their own lives.

All real mass-murders — or attempts at same — over the last 100 years have been perpetrated by folks either actively (like Communists) or passively (like Nazis) godless. The only possible exception is the Ottoman's decimation of the Armenians — shocking in itself, however, it is dwarfed by the "achievements" of Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao, or Rwanda's thugs. Osama bin Laden — the worst religious murderer of recent memory — does not stand near those guys, because, in no small part, the fate of innocent people actually bothered him somewhat and he tried (if unconvincingly) to distance himself from the 9/11 attack.

Even when you are cornered by religious zealots bent on killing "infidels", one can escape death by converting. But there is/was no escape for "kulaks" from Stalin and Mao, for Jews from Hitler, or for Bosnjaks from Milosevic...

Which takes one to the major point/revelation — religion is not the reason. Like a gun or a hammer, it is a tool, that could be used for good or evil depending on the user's motivations and desires, which are usually far deeper seated, than the religion can penetrate. If anything, religion softens the rough edges we've all inherited.

I strongly suspect that you have been indoctrinated heavily against Com.

That's true. I was heavily indoctrinated against Communism — by Communists...

Your comment about the lamppost I will not even attempt to answer - it is so childish and shallow....

It is not at all shallow — I'm against death penalty in general for fear of uncorrectable mistake. But a person, who openly admits sharing the most murderous ideology known so far (Nazism is not even close), is an unmistakable danger. Killing such people is the least we can do in memory of the millions of innocent victims of Communism.

You actually trust people whose moral standards are from an old book

I don't trust — I trust them more than others. There is a difference...

I like Obama. I like much, not all, of what he's doing. But come on!

If china PCs had been hammering my servers for updates to their plagiarized software, I'd have called the CIA to see what to slip in next update. And this *has* been done before. During the Cold War, in order to disrupt the Soviet economy and serve them some comeuppance for their industrial espionage activities, the CIA, in partnership with American Technology companies ensured that hardware and software with carefully arranged "flaws" found its way into Soviet hands.

In one particular instance a "flawed" natural gas pipeline software and associated hardware went "haywire" (i.e. it ran the ultra-high pressure test) after a planned period of normal operation. The result was the largest non-nuclear man-made explosion ever seen from space (the satellites designed to detect plumes from ICBM launches detected a tremendous flash from the area near Vladivostok where the pipeline in question was located).

This article covers some of the details excerpted from the book At the Abyss: An Insider's History of the Cold War as recalled by Thomas C. Reed, a former Air Force secretary who was serving in the National Security Council at the time.

When I read about progress along these lines I always think about this story about Iran, which resulted in mockery from all corners of the globe.

Windows Vista was released before it was ready. Even Microsoft middle managers complained about that. Customers rejected Vista; here is one of the hundreds of articles about that: Corporate America's rejection of Vista: Many companies delay or denounce Microsoft's flagship product.

One magazine collected 210,000 signatures against adoption of Windows Vista and for keeping Windows XP: The campaign to save Windows XP.

The fact is that we are not seeing the kind of weaknesses in Linux, OS X, or BSD that are commonly found in Windows. Windows XP was an expensive hassle for us until SP2.

Here is an interesting fact: The latest version of Firefox, and all the versions before it, have a bug which causes Firefox to crash when there are too many windows and tabs. That bug corrupts Windows; sometimes Windows crashes, also. It is always necessary to re-start the computer.

Linux remains stable when Firefox crashes, however.

Did you read your references? The first two don't even agree with you:

http://articles.latimes.com/2005/sep/11/books/bk-powers11
Summary: Some random journalist wrote a book about how porn is bad. Her methods are flawed, she overgeneralizes, and several competent professionals disagree with her.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/29644568/ns/today-today_relationships/
"Dr. Gail's Bottom Line: Pornography isn't intrinsically bad. It's bad only if it interferes negatively with people's lives or relationships."

http://www.lightedcandle.org/pornstats/porn_is_bad.asp
I'll give you credit: this site does actually agree with you. Even if we ignore the site's obvious bias, though, it doesn't seem to be a reliable source. Most of the claims are worded in such a way that they sound more significant than they actually are, and the most severe claims are without citations. (Some of the papers cited may be reliable, but I haven't looked them up yet.)

To everyone who seems to think that teachers work a tiny number of hours only to enjoy an entire summer off:
You are a bunch of idiots

Your average teacher works 10+ hours a day 5 days a week throughout the school year for minimal pay. The school day may only be 8-9 hours, but there is curriculum planning, staff meetings, PTA meetings, homework grading, and many other things to extend the time. I stated 10 hours above, but that is a conservative estimate.

Then, after the long school year, most teachers have to go take classes themselves. It is a requirement in many places that teachers have "continuing education" just to maintain their pathetically low pay.

So who is going to take the brunt of these extended hours? The teachers.
Will it help anything? No.

Yes, there are bad teachers out there, but there are a hell of a lot more bad parents. A teacher can educate a student for only so many hours a day, after that it is the parent's responsibility to encourage their child's education. When a student consistently comes in without doing their homework, what are the teachers to do?

In my opinion, one of the best ideas I have seen is giving teachers the ability to grade parents. Everyone wants to hold teachers accountable for the quality of education they provide, it is time we held parents accountable for failing to foster that education.

http://articles.latimes.com/2005/sep/11/books/bk-powers11

or

http://www.lightedcandle.org/pornstats/porn_is_bad.asp

or

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/29644568/ns/today-today_relationships/

No whitepapers offhand sorry.

There's also (d) This is just a publicity stunt and NASA is going to mostly ignore the submissions anyway.

See: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30217550/

So go ahead waste your time. I'm not even sure if they will bother reading submissions after the first randomly sampled 1000 or so.

I wasn't aware of the AAA's study. More, I have problems with the AAA - they have given bad advice in the past. But, this study validates what the AAA says on the subject, with a lot more credibility:

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/portal/site/nhtsa/template.MAXIMIZE/menuitem.416f74e8613992381601031046108a0c/?javax.portlet.tpst=4427b997caacf504a8bdba101891ef9a_ws_MX&javax.portlet.prp_4427b997caacf504a8bdba101891ef9a_viewID=detail_view&itemID=d01bab6383f62010VgnVCM1000002c567798RCRD

Wow! It looks like I searched out one of the longest addresses on the web, huh? Try these http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32035670/ns/technology_and_science-wireless/

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090924/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_commercial_drivers_cell_phones

People who claim that they drive safely while using a phone probably think they also drive safely with .2% blood alcohol content.

Given some of the footage I've seen [mediaite.com]... that would seem to fit it...

For anyone who didn't watch thevideo he posted it shows the police already having described it as unlawful assembly and have already began firing in tear gas and using the "sound cannon". A large amount of the crowd are journalists. The garbage dumpsters thing was a few people rolling it towards the police, it was pretty pathetic and in no way made it a riot. Even so considering the police were already using force to try and disperse them it is well known that this can cause people to riot (see G20 protests in London and the kettling) and so it can be the police that causes the violence in the first place.

Really? Your Google-foo must be weak... mine though is strong, because a quick search for g 20 pittsburgh damage [google.com] turns up 290k hits... repeating a number of ~50k in damage (20k of which sounds to be due to one man).

Haha yes your google-foo is so strong that you think that the number of results from an unquoted query on google proves anything. Did you even look at the first link google responds with?
Well here it is. The first paragraph:
"PITTSBURGH - A vociferous but peaceful group of several thousand people marched for miles through downtown Pittsburgh on Friday, united by opposition to the Group of 20 summit but expressing a diversity of mostly liberal causes as an army of stone-faced riot police watched their every move"
So in summary if you are trying to correct someone for spouting bullshit don't bullshit yourself.

What the ill-informed such as yourself call "big guns - like assault rifles" are military-looking guns that have been altered so that they fire one bullet at a time. To make them or import them here, they must not be alterable to fully automatic fire.

hahahahahahaha

You're kidding, right? All single-barrel guns only shoot one bullet at a time silly!

In all seriousness though, "not alterable" doesn't mean what you think it means. Go to a few gun shows and you will see that they sell kits to "fix" your old pre-1994-assult-weapons-ban gun... It doesn't mean it is legal for you to modify it, but you know damn well people do it. The ban also expired in 2004 which means that in addition to the pre-1994 guns that fire "exactly the same ammo at exactly the same rate of fire" as military versions, you can also now get others that are fully automatic, but not quite as quick (still fixable with that nice gun show kit though).

I do agree about one thing though, those aren't big guns. This is a big gun.

A low orbit recon blimp would be way cooler... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5025388/ns/technology_and_science-space/

. In most of the United States, you can't even take a piss in public! How's that for freedom of expression?

Not only that, but they get grossed out over a mammary gland.

In Germany (at least in the channels I have in my TV here in Sachsen-Anhalt) it is normal to see nude people in open TV... while 5 frames of that freaks out people in the USA...

Easier said than done if you're living paycheck-to-paycheck. Like 60% of Americans.

Toyota and Ford could easily work together, and haven't been averse to the idea in the past..

In Australia, under government-sponsored reforms intended to reduce duplication of effort and make the local car industry more sustainable that started in the mid-80s, there was a lot of collaboration between the local GM subsidiary and Nissan and Toyota. The Family II engines, as used in a number of Holden and Opel and Vauxhaul models (sorry, not familar with what they went into in the US), were sold to Nissan for use in various locally-built models. Locally-built Toyotas were badge-engineered and sold as Holdens to fill a small-to-mid-size niche. Holden's Commodore was at one point badge-engineered to become the Toyota Lexcen.

If Ford asked Toyota for engines, they'd probably get them. And that goes both ways.

Thanks for the reference. I believe, though, that the surveillence which is allowed without a warrant applies only to non-"US Persons" which the document describes on page 4 under section 102 "Authorization for Electronic Surveillance for Foreign Intelligence Purposes". It further restricts this under (B) "There is no substantial likelyhood that the surveillance will aquire the contents of any communications to which a United States person is a party; ..."

While you are right, your not entirely or completely right on this. The problem is that a United States person is defined in the law and there is a specific exception for corporations and associations who work in concert with foreign powers and agents. This has later been expanded to include terrorists and terrorist groups. Of course corporations and associations are nothing more then groups of people organized under a specific charter so while we would normally consider them as US persons, for the purpose of the law, they are not always US persons.

That distinction does cause some confusion. I believe it's section 101 in which the definitions are. US persons should be defined on the second or third page of the PDF.

My understanding and that of congress is that the law was broken by deliberately and knowingly listening in on communications of thousands of Americans and routing or copying virtually all communications to or through their circuits.

The routing of communications was done through the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act which was passed into law in 1995. It basically states that telecoms need to make certain changes to allow wiretaps and other law enforcement needs and provides a reimbursement of costs provision. It came from a time when even if a warrant was needed and issued, many of the facilities and technology made it difficult to put the wire taps in place because they were all different from area to area and provider to provider. The routing changes, while seemingly scary, were actually supported by this law and made it possible for less people to do more taps from fewer locations.

Now, technically, the Bush Administration did violate the law concerning the taps. The problem is they associated them with terrorists and terrorism. Neither of those apply to the warrant exceptions in the FISA laws. However, the orders for the taps pretended they did apply.

I disagree that they were presented with the proper documentation because my understanding is that that documentation is a court order. The executive branch does not have uncontrolled powers except under declaration of war, which only congress can do.

That's what people are attempting to claim but it just isn't true. The law specifically states that the Attorney General can issue an order for up to one year without a court ever becoming involved at all. The entire TSP program was modeled after the warrantless allowances that were present in FISA including the reporting to congress. Something people tend to gloss over is the fact that the House and Senate intelligence comitys as well as respective leaders knew about the program since it's inception and was updated periodically as the FISA laws require. It was limited to the intelligence communities because of the sensitive nature of the program and national security.

Now your right in that the executive branch does not have uncontrolled powers. However, there are inherent powers that have long been accepted to be constitutionally necessary and even a constitutional duty. The Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 which is the law that first required wiretaps, Congress specifically stated under 2511 section 3,

Nothing contained in this chapter or in section 605 of the C

"I don't care if one nutcase claims to be a follower of jedism and says that he has to wear his hooded robe when he's in a grocery store. I don't expect the store to honor that kind of nonsense. "

Who decides who's religion is nonsense? Hey I'm with you I'd love to run around destroying all the religions I don't agree with but then isn't that what the Nazi's did?

If he's registered as a religion he has just as much as a right to sue as the muslim teen that sued Abercrombie for not letting her wear her scarf at work.

Iian Lee is the person behind these lies:

http://tech.uk.msn.com/gaming/article.aspx?cp-documentid=7838134

He is a paid consultant for Microsoft.

You know...the company with a 33, 55, 75 percent(take your pick) failure rate on their Xbox 360 console...

"So which one is it?"

None. There are no 'affected models'.

This is a slanderous lie from a person who works for Microsoft as an attempt to do damage control over the RRoD hardware failure fiasco.

By the way, I think the correct term for a tea party member is now "Tea Party Patriot".

Here is an amusing portion of the transcript from MSNBC's "Countdown with Keith Olberman":

David Shuster was the guest host and no I'm not making this up (I giggle like a first-grader every time I read this):

SHUSTER: For most Americans, Wednesday, April 15th will be Tax Day. But in our fourth story tonight: It's going to be teabagging day for the right-wing and they're going nuts for it. Thousands of them whipped out the festivities early this past weekend, and while the parties are officially toothless, the teabaggers are full-throated about their goals.

They want to give President Obama a strong tongue-lashing and lick government spendingâ"spending they did not oppose when they were under presidents Bush and Reagan. They oppose Mr. Obama's tax ratesâ"which will be lower for most of themâ"and they oppose the tax increases Mr. Obama is imposing on the rich, whose taxes will skyrocket to a rate about 10 percent less than it was under Reagan. That's teabagging in a nut shell.

Taking its inspiration from the Boston Tea Party when colonists tossed British tea into the sea because the tax in it had not been voted on by their own duly-elected representativesâ"that's exactly the opposite, of course, of today's taxes, known in some quarters as taxation with representation.

But as âoeNew York Timesâ columnist, Paul Krugman, points out today, this time, the tea bagging is not a spontaneous uprising. The people who came up with it are a familiar circle of Republicans, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, both of whom have firm support from right-wing financiers and lobbyists. As well as Washington prostitute patron, Senator David Vitter, who has issued statements in support of teabagging but is publicly tight-lipped.

Then there was the media, specifically the FOX News Channel, including Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity. Both are looking forward to an up close and personal taste of teabagging themselves at events this Wednesday. But most amusing of all is Neil Cavuto, a member of the network's executive committee. Neil's online bio says he joined the network in July of 1996, three months before the FOX News Channel went on the air.

Cavuto, defending his network's proportion of teabagging said, quote, âoeWe are going to be right in middle of these teabaggers, because at FOX, we do not pick and choose these rallies and protests. We were there for the Million Man March.

Can we roll that footage, the FOX News coverage of the Million Man March backing in October of '95?

Of course, the Million Man March occurred, as NewsHounds.org points out, almost a year before FOX News was on the air.

We can only speculate why widespread teabagging made Cavuto think of the Million Man March, unless he got them confused with Dick Armey. And in Cavutoâs defense, if you are planning simultaneous teabagging all around the country, you're going to need a Dick Armey.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30210576/#storyContinued

Um, the Parent poster isn't a troll, he's absolutely correct. Here I'll even link an article on it. No One Believed Me

They come from different places. The description of the duck bill dinosaur (hadrosaur) says it had been owned by a Japanese museum which closed, and was then bought by a private American collector who is now selling it.

There's another article here about the auction which mentions the T.Rex also currently being privately owned:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32705922/ns/technology_and_science-science/

Sign of the recession I guess that some fat cat has to sell his T.Rex.

I know I'm being kind of pedantic, but I find your use of "criminal behavior" to describe shootings to be disingenuous.

Criminal behavior, on the other hand, is more like robbery, rape, arson, or even drug dealing, and are far more common. I'm not sure there are too many cases where a gun in such events would be beneficial to the victim. In fact, it usually has the opposite effect, where the aggressor gets an additional advantage after taking the gun.

with just a quick search of something that happened in the last month. If you listen for these on the news you will start hearing more. I have been very surprised that defensive use with a firearm is making it to the mainstream media with more frequency. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32426383/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

I Know that with a little time I could inundate you with articles of a similar nature. The NRA (I know it's a bad word) reprints articles verified from smaller news agencies at, least 5 monthly, with defensive uses from criminal behavior.

And stopping or preventing organized crime with a gun amounts to vigilanteism, which is also frowned upon.

I am pretty sure that I never suggested stopping organized crime or vigilante behavior at all. The parent asked for evidence to support citizens stopping mass shootings and I provided. then you asked for info supporting private citizens stopping "criminal behavior " I provided it. Maybe a little more research instead of just repeating what you hear, especially about getting your gun taken away and used against you. In fact if you read this article the apparent "victims" took away the attackers weapon and then chased them away with a knife. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/sfl-robbery-lake-bn081009,0,821164.story

I do not think that everyone should go out and get a gun! People have a responsibility to train themselves on proper control and safety measures including retention and not shooting your neighbor. If people took the time to be trained and used firearms appropriately I believe we would be safer.

A precedent (despite what a poster above thinks) is a ruling by a higher court in the same jurisdiction.

Black's Law Dictionary disagrees with you, as does SCOTUS. I'm'a go out on a limb here and say that you're full of it.

Bullshit. The Americans are just scared of someone walking around.

Let's just put this in perspective, right ? A feutus, 2 months after conception, is capable of more complex reasoning (and feels pain) than a cow. Yet abortion ... that's no problem, right ? A child's brain starts up and starts learning and feeling the 18th day after conception, long before even the most perceptive of women realizes she's pregnant. Yet we allow abortion, but feel sorry for animals which will never attain the intellectual capacity a human feutus develops before it even connects blood vessels to the mother.

Something is a bit ... well, stupid, about this idiocy.

And don't worry about this plan : it's a non-starter. Animals who feel no pain for whatever reason are born all of the time. So are humans who feel no pain. You might think this is a blessing, right ? Think again ... In case you're wondering why there are so few of them : most of these people die from idiotic accidents (like biting off critical body parts, I shit you not) at a young age.

I seriously doubt that once these cows turn out to have zero feedback between tongue and teeth, then bite of their tongue, and refuse to eat any more until they die, this idiocy will have lost all appearance of either relieving pain or being economically interesting. Or they refuse to turn back at the edge of the meadow, no matter how much barbed wire they get wrapped around them or how much blood they lose (actually bulls have serious problems with that even with perfectly functioning pain nerves)

Besides growing meat directly, without animal involvement at all, is getting underway. Just google it. That will presumably be cheaper and will present zero ethical issues. And it will get rid having to cut nerves or blood vessels out of steaks. Hurray. Also it will be more efficient. The sad truth is that plants are very inefficient solar panels, and animals are utter disasters at turning biomatter into meat. There is no existing plant that has 2% efficiency at photosynthesis, and there is no animal that has a 2% efficient digestive system (humans are actually just about the most efficient animals on the planet, and while everyone thinks it's intelligence that allows us to spread, it might very well be that we have, by far, the most efficient metabolism (measured by testing energy intake versus movement performance)). And as we all know 2%*2% = 0.4% efficiency solar energy -> meat (and that's only for animals captured in the wild, farmed animals are less efficient). The most efficient amongst humans are about 2%^3 or they use about 1 watt from around 8 million delivered by the sun.

As population rises this 8 million solar watts to give 1 human 1 watt (which will allow a california resident to maintain body temperature in the summer for about 3 minutes) will have to get better. We can't modify humans, so we'll have to eat more efficiently produced foods.

You are a complete moron to not even being able to google stuff like this before forming your opinion in 2 seconds.

No pain is a very serious genetic disorder.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/42140.php
http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/conditions/01/27/rare.conditions/index.html
http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/377/14726_pain.html

"Those people, who do not feel any pain at all, usually die before they turn 25"

"A lot of parents would be happy to have a baby, who does not wake them up at night."..."When Ashlyn's teeth started growing at the age of six months, the girl shredded her own lips with them."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6379795/

âoeSome people would say thatâ(TM)s a good thing. But no, itâ(TM)s not,â says Tara Blocker, Ashlynâ(TM)s mother. âoePainâ(TM)s there for a reason. It lets your body know somethingâ(TM)s wrong and it needs to be fixed. Iâ(TM)d give anything for her to feel pain.â

The untreatable disease also makes Ashlyn incapable of sensing extreme temperatures â" hot or cold â" disabling her bodyâ(TM)s ability to cool itself by sweating. Otherwise, her senses are normal.

So yes, your opinion is quite stupid.

Actually there is currently a 2 man team working in a garage in Denmark to produce a rocket capable of safely taking a person into space (and presumably back somehow). They have completed small scale testing of their engine (video on the link below) and are currently building the real version. Article in danish: http://ing.dk/artikel/98441-byggeriet-af-danmarks-stoerste-rumraket-er-begyndt

Also a danish team of about 8 people are participating in Googles Lunar X price: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28258165/

I second mgblst! Megapixles Don't Matter!

I think the most important aspect of a digital camera is its micro controller. How quickly can it take photos? How long is the delay from when you push the button to when the photo is taken? "Ok ready? 1... 2... 3... Cheese!.. err. hold on. I think the flash is charging. Keep smiling. Fla Fla Fla Fla Fla Flash!'
Most annoying thing in the universe since Yellow Punch Buggy No Return!

I think a lot of the lack of R&D goes back to decisions made many years ago by the government. At one point all employee salaries regardless of how outrageous they were were a deductible expense.

This sounds fishy to me. Can you cite the change in the tax code? I am not a tax accountant, but it's my understanding salaries are in fact still "deductible" in the sense that they count as an expense against profits. Are you saying they used to be deductible against gross revenue? And how does this fit in with the large "bonuses" that are essentially high salary compensation?

I'd agree that regardless of the tax structure, though, the principal-agent problem and short-term thinking is... well, a problem.

I remember when HP meant test equipment and awesome calculators, not lousy consumer based computers (Thanks Carly).

The interesting thing is about Carly's reign is that even by short-sighted Wall Street analyst standards, it should serve as a pretty bright warning sign for suits looking to dismantle an engineering company. HP's value dropped "down two-thirds from its peak" while she was running the company and jumped up over 10% at one point the day the news of her ousting broke.

(Now, of course, she's going into politics. For some reason McCain took her on as an economic adviser for a while, despite her track record. Which she appears to think qualifies her as a brilliant candidate for the U.S. Senate.)

Just don't have any women on board, particularly Canadian women, otherwise the the Russians will kill each other trying to kiss her.

Mars Epic Fail (Didn't last even one month):
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6955149/page/3/

Mars Epic Win:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/07/15/after-three-months-in-a-tin-can-six-men-end-simulated-mars-mission/

Let me rephrase your post, if I may presume: "I can't see a use for it, therefore it is not useful. Because so many other people find it useful in spite of this, it is a failing in them."

Yes. You have hit the nail squarely on the head.

Contrary to your intent to be a tad snarky, you have exposed the actual truth.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32408652/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/

Right, there is just no way to do lab experiments on evolution.

Really? I don't know where you live, but I haven't heard of many people who are born into families with money and then end up broke.

There are however many stories of people ending up broke after winning the lottery.

Companies have no way of knowing if someone is a nutjob. Believe it or not, I don't want to have nutjobs working under me, so when it comes time to hire a new tech, you can bet I won't be hiring any nutjobs. You're acting like the company "wants" to hire nutjobs, or has some policy saying the must hire nutjobs.

I never said they wanted to hire nutjobs, but their screening is lacking. I hate to break this to you, but nobody that goes off like this his a complaint free record. They do have a way; proper screening, and monitoring the employee after they are hired.

"He should have been fired." Ever hear of "innocent until proven guilty?" How would you like it if some jerk decided to claim you did something you didn't in order to get you fired? One of our collection people where I work was talking to a customer one day, and I heard the customer raising a **** fit. Later that day, when the same customer came in, he claimed that the collection fellow had been cursing him out -- little did he know I was there the whole time listening in.

That only applies to criminal cases. VZ can fire him for any reason, or no reason. And its really fucking clear in this case, being the employee was CAUGHT BY AN OFF DUTY COP WHILE CHASING THE CUSTOMER.

If the man is guilty, then sue the employee. Once the employee is now branded a criminal, then sue Verizon if they don't fire said criminal. In this system though, it's not fair to fire people over accusations -- which is all this guy has. Now, if you can show me where this guy was convicted (not charged, charged does not mean guilty) then you have a point.

Nope. VZ failed in their duty to make sure their employees can handle stress, THEY ARE LIABLE. Oh, and the employee would only be a "criminal" if criminal charges are filed.. but for some reason the procescutor is refusing to do so.

In this system though, it's not fair to fire people over accusations -- which is all this guy has. Now, if you can show me where this guy was convicted (not charged, charged does not mean guilty) then you have a point.

Again, did you miss the part where the employee wa CAUGHT BY AN OFF DUTY COP WHILE CHASING THE CUSTOMER?? Christ man, get a fucking grip on reality. You really want me to believe the customer beat his own face just to get some random VZ employee fired? WTF dude, you're not even in the same reality anymore.

As is, we have someone who was charged, but not convicted. It's tricky ground, but if anyone needs to be held accountable it should be the justice system that dismissed the case. The employer takes a risk if they fire someone over accusations.

No they don't; employers can fire anyone for any reason, or for no reason. They can fire you for not liking the color of your shirt today.

Doctors Insurance:
http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080313/OPINION/803130304

Oh... a poor doctor crying he has to pay more for insurance. Whaaa, my $450,000 / yr salary isn't enough, wahhh!! Yup, no conflict of interest there. No sir. After all, why SHOULDN'T he be able to leave a scaple inside a patient, and his only penelty should be "oh, sorry about that!"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25120613/

Not to mention, we get huge lawsuits like this all over the place. Sure, it can be spread out, but cases like this hurt all of us. If you think this is honestly a case of a company not caring about risking customer's lives, then there should be a criminal suit. Why money? Why isn't he trying to get people jailed? That's not what he wants, he wants (b$_$)b vacation plans.

Because you can't put a company in jail? Because he has MEDICAL BILLS which will need to be paid? Why should HIS health insurance pay because of the actions of VZ's employee? Because the victim CAN'T FILE A CRIMINAL SUIT? God damn, d

Did you even read that? It's basically saying what I said, because it was the study I was citing: reporters are liberal, editors and owners are conservative. The media 'lean to the left' but are 'more moderate than congress.'

The methodology of this study is somewhat, er, misleading at best. They compare ONLY the number of times a paper cites conservative think tanks versus cites of liberal think tanks. Huh? What is that supposed to show? According to this study, 'The Drudge Report' is liberal!

Seriously, dude, put down the kool-aid. There is no vast liberal conspiracy. It just looks that way to some extremists.

Really? Are you serious? You actually believe that the press overall is fair? Really!?!!? Obama was on news magazine's cover overs repeatedly in 2008. That includes an election year!!!

It's not just Time. Here is a quote from MSNBC:

Time has featured Obama on its cover 14 times since Jan. 1. Newsweek was close behind, featuring the now-president-elect on 12 of its issues. Time has had 52 issues in 2008, so Obama has been featured on more than one-in-four of its covers, or about 27% of the time.

That was from 2008, an election year!

Are you going to tell me that MSNBC is down the center politically? Really? The network with Rachel Madow and Chris Matthews? If you don't know who they are, Rachel Maddow had a show on Air America (are they center also?). She looks like Wesley Crusher. Chris Matthews is the guy who used to write speeches for President Carter and also has his own show like Maddow on MSNBC.

Don't take my word for it. And if you don't like the UCLA study (guess it didn't say what you wanted to hear), google "media bias" study for many more examples. Of course, I understand that if you are left of Marx, you might find the media to be right-wing. I am right-of-center, so I admit my judgment is clouded. That's why I rely on these studies to show that I'm not nuts when I see CNN place a blinking X over Dick Cheney's face and see liberal reporter after reporter who gave glowing coverage of the anti-war protesters, then claim that townhall protesters were bussed in and paid, when in reality the only bus there was from ACORN and the only people paid to promote an agenda is from the left. (Yeah, you don't see that reported in the media either!)

This finding is just another piece in a century's worth of evidence that drup prohibition just plain does not work. It doesn't reduce drug use, it doesn't reduce addiction rates, it doesn't reduce the harms inflicted on society due to drug abuse, it doesn't protect kids... In short, it doesn't accomplish any of the things it claims to accomplish. It does do an enormous amount of harm.

If these teabaggers actually cared about small government, privacy, individual liberty, government staying out of health care, etc, they should start fighting drug prohibition, asset forfeiture, and all the screwed up big government, big brother crap that comes out of drug prohibition. The reason why they don't is of course obvious: These teabaggers are essentialy modern day brownshirts screwing up democratic processes in an orgy of racism: usually as subtext, but more and more out in the open. The modern system of drug prohibition is of course our strongest form of institutionalized racism. These guys don't mind big government poking around in our private lives, and making decisions about our health, as long as they are targeting hispanics and blacks vastly more than whites.

It is of course an indisputable fact that the first Marijuana laws were nothing more than a legislative method of screwing hispanics in California, but I always figured the racist outcomes of drug prohibition were an accidental by-product of faulty and emotional thinking. Nowadays, when I see the overlap between the hard-line prohibitionists and the teabaggers, I start thinking, yeah, maybe deep down a lot of it is just plain racially motivated. Maybe.

I do regret letting this post devolve into a flaming of tea baggers, but I just can't help myself. I find it awesome that they chose to name themselves after the practice of laying your testicles on something. I always knew all those right wing fundamentalists were total perverts. I don't live in the states, but can I suggest that those of you living there start going to teabagger meeting with large photo collections of your testacles layed out on various things? Start whipping that tea-bag out and laying it on the speaking podium or coffee machine and taking pictures.

This is nonsensical.

The solution to bad government regulation is effective government regulation. Countries all over the world have effectively run networks that are under the control of the people through democratic action, not subject to the skew of the profit desires of some private entity.

There are some things that cannot operate in a totally free market, like banking, health care, and utilities. The reason is because modern societies require these things to operate, and they should not be left to the wild swings and herd mentality of the market. Nor should my ability to get health care be affected by someone else's incentive to deny me health care. Nor should a banker be allowed to repackage bad debt as good debt through collusion with another company and sell it to me. Nor should a private company be my only option for local utilities service.

Let me put it like this: if there's a free, unregulated market for MP3 players, that's fine. Duke it out. Screw your customers. Worst case scenario, they have a broken MP3 player and they don't have the money anymore.

If there's a free unregulated healthcare market, don't be surprised if you end up with corporations who don't care if children die of leukemia if they can get out of providing care on a technicality. They have no obligation to do the right thing, and their shareholders only know of a single value: profit. Worse case scenario: you are dead, or at least bankrupt for the rest of your life.

Internet access probably falls somewhere in the middle.

If that's the case, they should also test for traces of his dad on the money too.

:)

If true, I don't know, you are free to cite rates of incarceration and crimes and the demographics involved, simply being an illegal alien doesn't necessarily translate into being a criminal.

Allow me to point you to the word ILLEGAL in your sentence above.

And it's never "just" being in the US "without papers." There's the fraud of giving fake names to cops, or on welfare documents, or on hiring documents. There's the massive amount of fraud involved in illegal aliens stealing social security numbers, which winds up costing people money in higher interest rates (when they run off on bills) and in damage to citizens' credit ratings.

And that's not even touching the fact that illegals make up almost 30% of federal prisoners, not to mention half of California's state prison population, and the fact that the membership of drug gangs like MS-13 is predominantly illegals as well.

Oh, and then there's the numerous number of illegals who jumped the US border to escape prosecution in Mexico...

Or how about the fact that more Americans have been killed by illegal aliens than in Iraq since 9/11?

Well?

Cops don't make it into the top ten, they don't even make it into the top 20. You want a dangerous job? Go fish. Literally. Or try logging, or being a cabbie, those are dangerous. Driving around while heavily armed and wearing ballistic vests, with dozens of similarly equipped confreres a radio call away, is hardly "dangerous" -- hundreds of phony, "I love the police, because they keep me safe from legions of zombies", police shows aside. http://www.forbes.com/2008/08/25/dangerous-jobs-fishing-lead-careers-cx_mk_0825danger.html http://money.msn.com/content/invest/extra/P63405.asp http://socyberty.com/work/ten-most-dangerous-jobs-in-america/ About 60 police officers are killed every year in America, and the number is dropping. Astoundingly none of those deaths have been attributed to blogs! http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-10-30-police-killings_x.htm So please stop telling us how fraking dangerous it is to be a cop.

Look around. Do you see private companies lining up to fund Moon travel?

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/02/22/65477.aspx

Even as Bigelow Aerospace gears up for launching its second prototype space station into orbit, the company has set its sights on something much, much bigger: a project to assemble full-blown space villages at a work site between Earth and the moon, then drop them to the lunar surface, ready for immediate move-in.

In an exclusive interview this week, Las Vegas billionaire Robert Bigelow confirmed that his company has been talking about the concept with NASA â" and that the first earthly tests of the techniques involved would take place later this year. The scenario he sketched out would essentially make Bigelow a general contractor for the final frontier.

That role would be a good fit for Bigelow, who made his fortune in the real estate, hotel and construction business and is now focused on developing inflatable modules (or as he prefers to call them, "expandable systems") that can serve as the building blocks for orbital living complexes.

The first big step down that path came in July, when a Russian booster put Bigelow's Genesis 1 prototype module into orbit. Bigelow has said even he was surprised by the success of that mission, and he has committed himself to spending hundreds of millions of dollars to follow up on that first launch.

Every single statement you've made is false. You are a liar. You are lying.

Back up your statements with links. Show me the insurance company waiting list.

Canada specifically prohibits fee-for-service medicine:

The practice of extra-billing, in which physicians charge patients a higher fee than that covered by provincial insurance, was common in some provinces. The patients then had to pay the difference between the cost of the service and the amount covered by provincial insurance. The federal government effectively abolished this practice in the Canada Health Act, a law that specifically prohibits extra-billing and penalizes any province that allows it.

So you lied about that. You lied about insurance companies overruling doctors on truly medically necessary treatments. If the doctors are correct, the insurance company loses these arguments. Show me the link to prove otherwise if you're not simply lying.

And if you don't want to pay taxes for health care, then fix Medicare and leave everyone else's health care alone.

Actually, the bit with the one who took pictures of his nude relative somewhat pissed me off. Not because he might be a paedophile, but because of how it's written:

Shawn Powell, known as "Slipknotpsycho," is a 24-year-old Texan on that state's sex offender registry. In May 2002, he was sentenced to 13 months in custody following his conviction on a felony charge of indecency with a minor (he admitted taking naked photos of an eight-year-old female relative).

It's written in such a way that we're supposed to think "and after that he raped her and jerked off to the pictures afterwards", but nothing indicates that this is the case. For all we know he may have been taking pictures of the kids playing with the water hose in the yard at a summer family reunion, and some neighbour saw him take pictures and got offended.

Just like "$person's a registered sex offender" and no mention that it's because they were caught pissing on a police car (not the case here). Go look through your family photo album and see how many pictures you'll find of nude children. Obviously your family is made entirely from paedophiles.

It really pissed me off in this article, because it was a great and well thought out article up to that point, and after hitting that bit I couldn't help but thinking "great, another scaremongering article. They even follow up the paedophile angle with an overblown drug user angle:

The unemployed Powell, whose rap sheet also includes a 2003 pot possession conviction

Oh, the horror. Pot possesion?!? He's clearly the right hand man of a Columbian drug baron!

Doing pot places him in a group of people that include such notorious delinquents as Michael Phelps, Barack Obama, Peter Fonda and a shitload of other degenerates who should've been a stain on the bedsheets instead ...

I haven't bothered to look at Shawn Powell's indecency trial. Considering how the US has prosecutors who see fit to permanently ruin the lives of 14-year-old kids who take nude pictures of themselves, I can't really get my panties in a twist over the stuff The Smoking Gun lists for Powell.

For all I know Powell may be the lowest of low, but nothing that The Smoking Gun lists convinces me that he is. I love this tidbit as well:

Nothing speaks more to the execrable nature of Malik's rank and file than the fact that the sex offender who took naked photos of a little girl is not the most loathsome guy in the chat room.

Now, what did this guy do that so much, much worse than being a trainee kiddie fiddler? He tricked someone into drinking urine. Now, either The Smoking Gun considers drinking a sterile although disgusting liquid much much much more despicable than child molestation, or they themselves don't really believe that Powell's pictures were more than someone completely overreacting.

They did some great work on that article, and I wouldn't mind seeing all of those guys get their just deserts, but why the perceived need to fluff up the piece like that?

I think you may be thinking of this from Jonathan Swift?

" That the remaining Hundred thousand, may, at a Year old, be offered in Sale to the Persons of Quality and Fortune, through the Kingdom; always advising the Mother to let them suck plentifully in the last Month, so as to render them plump, and fat for a good Table. "

which is a satire, published in the early 18th century, by what served as AC at the time.

see http://encarta.msn.com/sidebar_761596693/%E2%80%9Ca_modest_proposal%E2%80%9D.html

I really don't think you want blue skin. Read this.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22536241/