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if the sunset comes and the provisions are off the books, lawmakers in both chambers would be facing a vote to reinstate controversial surveillance authorities, which is an entirely different political calculation [...] That may reflect a calculation on the president's part that the surveillance authorities aren't important enough to lose political capital fighting to keep them

Can we, please, have all Federal laws automatically expire this way? All, except the Constitution, of course...

And I mean, all: including the laws, that created (and empowered) all the various Federal "agencies" and "departments" — from the NSA to the IRS, all the way to the EPA, and the Department of Education?

Those, that are still deemed a good idea, will be have no problem getting a rubber-stamp for another period (3 or 5 or 10 years — whatever the default expiration). Those, where we aren't sure any longer — as in the case of "Patriot Act" — will have a relatively easy way to disappear... Automatically...

There really is no chance otherwise — consider the example at hand: it is hard to imagine Presidents farther apart from each other than Bush and Obama, but one signed the law in the first place, and the other is calling for its renewal.

If you want a good news site that is shockingly not biased, try VOANews.com.

Doesn't anybody but me use my way news?

Not really. The mention of "Lisa Jackson" (EPA Administrator) was from an incident in January -- 5 months ago.

This one addresses the DoJ's stupid request for $1+ million from AP to disclose all e-mail addresses and the use of second e-mail addresses by various agencies. None of those indicate anything similar to what Ms. Jackson did at all.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20130604/DA6MPFHG2.html

My mistake. I thought this discussion was specifically about the DOJ stupidly requesting $1+ million from AP for FOIA requests and "private" e-mail addresses.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20130604/DA6MPFHG2.html

You've dug up an article from January. We're now in June. Yes, *that* instance was quite probably criminal. What is being reported NOW is something totally different.

...no, no -- that's not how it's going to be "picked up".

Let's take a look:

NBC News: Particle confirmed as Higgs boson

Associated Press: Physicists say they have found a Higgs boson

Reuters: Strong signs Higgs boson has been found: CERN

Wall Street Journal: New Data Boosts Case for Higgs Boson Find

FOX News: Physicists say they have found long-sought Higgs boson

Washington Post: A closer look at the Higgs boson particle that helps explain what gives matter size and shape

Chicago Tribune: Strong signs Higgs boson has been found: CERN

Sky News: Higgs Boson: Experts Sure Of 'God Particle'

New York Daily News: Physicists say they have discovered crucial subatomic particle known as Higgs boson

Boston Globe: Physicists say they have found a Higgs boson

BBC (UK): LHC cements Higgs boson identification

BusinessWeek: Case for Higgs Boson Strengthened by New CERN Analysis

The Daily Mail (UK): Scientists say they HAVE found the 'God particle' - but admit they still aren't sure what type of Higgs boson it is

The Independent (UK): Have they found the Higgs boson at last? Cern physicists say they're confident of 'God particle' breakthrough

Telegraph (UK): Higgs boson: scientists confident they have discovered the 'God particle'

News Limited (AU): Higgs boson, the God particle, discovered by CERN

US News and World Report: Physicists Observe Higgs Boson, the Elusive 'God Particle'

None of these articles make any links to "God" other than a few -- mostly UK, not US -- sources referring to it as the so-called "God particle", but even those explain exactly what this particle is theorized to be, not anything supernatural, "proving God exists", or having anything whatever to do with God.

Some headlines read: Physicists found GOD particle'

Physicists say they have found a Higgs boson - this is the actual story headline and a story.

Quote:

They made the statement following study of the data gathered last year from the world's largest atom-smasher, which lies beneath the Swiss-French border outside Geneva. The European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, said that what they found last year was, indeed, a version of what is popularly referred to as the "God particle."

I thought about the significance of saying that and as an atheist, it doesn't mean anything for me, it just means some silly nick name. God-particle, glue-particle, whatever-particle.

I realised though that it is not how many people see it! There are millions of people who are quite religious and to them this really is something different, the religious zealots are selling the idea that scientists have discovered god!

This is a huge marketing propaganda campaign, the religious leaders will be able to point at this and tell their followers: you see, even scientists believe in god!

This is a very counter-productive, a terrible thing to do for the scientists to go along with this. They are truly doing a disservice to the entire thinking segment of the population by feeding into this propaganda. Is this the way for them to justify all the spending, to sell to the millions of religious fanatics that they "discovered god" (because that's all that the religious fanatics will hear: scientists discovered god).

This was the wrong way to go.

Spin can go a lot of different ways.

From the article:

The FLA found few safety violations, noting that the company had already dealt with problems like blocked fire exits and defective protective gear.

The FLA found that many workers at the Foxconn factories want to work even more overtime, so they can make more money. Foxconn told the FLA that it will raise hourly salaries to compensate workers for the reduced hours.

Heerden said that it's common to find workers in developing countries looking for more overtime, rather than less.

"They're often single, they're young, and there's not much to do, so frankly they'd just rather work and save," he said.
The auditors examined one years' worth of payroll and time records at each factory, conducted interviews with some workers and had 35,000 of them fill out anonymous surveys.

Apple has started tracking the working hours of half a million workers in its supply chain, and said that 89 percent of them worked 60 hours or less in February, even though the company was ramping up production of the new iPad. Workers averaged 48 hours per week.

You jest, but it's only a matter of time before someone is killed in an accident and the at fault driver was on a phone and manslaughter or homicide charges are brought up.

A quick Google search shows me that this has indeed already occured, but I don't see any results related to guilty verdicts.

Texting driver gets 3-year prison term, but no charges if the driver dies.

On climate change: "It's an exact science! Everyone agrees on the conclusions, and anyone who disagrees is just a 'denier.'"
On wrong hurricane predictions: "Geez, people assume we can predict everything. Weather prediction ain't an exact science."

I don't normally reply to ACs unless they state something really stupid, even if it is a vague attempt at trolling. In this case, I think you've succeeded.

First, refer to my response to someone else with a similar sentiment. Then you can understand my intent since I believe you missed it.

'Left' and 'Right'. These are not organized, monolithic groups that can be so easily categorized. These terms almost always indicate lazy thinking and lazy writing.

For the sake of concise arguments, it's often better to boil things down to a more easily understood and digested premise rather than enumerating through every single little group that's out there. The US political system is predominantly driven by left- and right-leaning forces. Yes, there are many in between, but the significant power base rests (unfortunately?) along one of those two sides.

Though, your nitpicking suggests I struck a nerve. That makes me happy.

"hypocritical ... daughter had kid ... espouses her religious beliefs. Really? Did Palin ever say she approved of her daughter's choices? How do her daughter's actions make her a hypocrite?

I'll give you that--to an extent. It was a mostly tongue in cheek comment. However, I do find it rather hypocritical that some individuals will carry on about others' lifestyles when their own are... questionable. Glass houses and all that rot.

That same SNL sketch had some very funny, nonseniscal bits that were verbatim Palin quotes.

I don't rot my brain watching SNL skits, and I might suggest you avoid doing the same.

But, whatever. More reasonable individuals would have been able to pick apart the intent of my post rather than collecting a laundry list of points they don't like.

To other readers: I have mixed feelings about Palin, and this article from the AP doesn't help. On the one hand, it seems that she's fair with her staff, but the Palin that is presented to the rest of us is different, either because of how the media presents her or because of how she presents herself. I wanted to offer some insight into how I see her, in spite of being right-wing myself, and indicate reasons why I don't really care for her in addition to the proposed solutions I offered of just ignore her.

Unfortunately, it appears that some Slashdotters dislike the woman so severely (take our AC friend who replied to me, for instance) that they almost immediately lose their marbles when it looks like someone else is vaguely coming to her defense. Sad world.

Black lawmakers want to limit new ethics office
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100602/D9G3AVUO0.html

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100508/D9FIH0G00.html

Early reports are in claiming that it was in the process of becoming a production well and the explosion occurred as the second cement seal was being set.

This one has more detail, and is actually really-well written. Really, an AP story with some investigative journalism. Kudos, guy, you're making your co-workers look bad. :)

Concur regarding disagreement on premise "anti-Obama means that your are pro-Bush," and all other such false dichotomies. So, who thinks "wire taps from the Bush era are okay"? Well, the Obama administration, it seems, who just signed another one year extension to such wire taps. See the article at: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100228/D9E4T02G0.html. When you hitch your wagon to the politician rather than analysis of individual issues and conditions, you lose your objectivity. The degree to which you lose your objectivity is the degree to which you abrogate reason. I'd recommend starting with the null hypothesis that all politicians suck and can't be trusted; therefore all must be watched carefully and engaged forcefully on the issues.

I didn't lie, you did, there is NO jail time try watching something that isn't fox news. http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090908/D9AJCL500.html Just as auto coverage is now mandatory in most states, Baucus would a require that all Americans get health insurance once the system is overhauled. Penalties for failing to get insurance would start at $750 a year for individuals and $1,500 for families. Households making more than three times the federal poverty level - about $66,000 for a family of four - would face the maximum fines. For families, it would be $3,800, and for individuals, $950.

An economy which has the wealth concentrated in the few is going to suffer because it has a poorer middle class.

Most of your rant is about equality being a good thing — and I absolutely agree with it. What I disapprove, however, is the government's pursuit of artificial equality. The difference is that of between healthy green grass, and not-so-healthy painted grass.

In other words, it is great, if citizens are equally rich naturally, but any attempts to make them equal by the government only make them equally poor. This is because you can not make people more productive, if they don't pursue that themselves. But you can confiscate from the productive — and this is your only instrument towards equality...

But you don't see the effective tax rate they are paying in the end. Turns out they get taxed much less than someone in the middle class like me.

It is patently obvious, that "the rich" pay a lot more in both absolute ($$) and relative (%%) terms in taxes. Both on income and on property. If your point is about something else, you don't articulate it...

If the public school system didn't exist, then some would get no education at all which would have an extremely negative impact on society.

We have a public school system, and some still don't get education "at all". As recently as in 2003 — decades after public school system was created — New York (of all places) was still blamed for school children "not receiving the constitutionally-mandated opportunity for a sound basic education". We are at the very top of spenders per pupil world-wide (and New York is at the top among the States), but there are still major gaps in educations with kids barely learning, how to put on a condom — forget adding fractions...

Government-provided health-care will be no different...

Record profits for people who tell you you can't have insurance because you are pregnant or you were raped.

That's right — you can not buy insurance for a car after the accident either. You can still get treatment (and repair your car) — you'll just have to pay for it yourself. And if you "can't afford it", then what you are asking for is charity. We, Americans, are very charitable on average, but we don't like it, when we are forced to help the poor at gunpoint (i.g. via the IRS).

As for their "record profits" — that's simply irrelevant. Oh, and it is also not true...

Capitalism and socialism are not inherently good or evil.

Socialism is inherently evil. First of all, by taking from work to console the idle it is patently unfair. And second — as Socialist countries world-wide demonstrate — it is also ineffective. At best, a Socialist country can survive economically. But it has no money to defend itself. Capitalism, on the other hand, not gives fair opportunities, but also provides enormous economic benefits even to the least successful of its participants. Forcing Socialism on a Capitalist society — using a temporary crisis, whenever convenient — is evil.

We don't want to cut off Phelps arm to make him slower. We want to make sure that if there is some minority kid out there that is faster than him, that he gets that same chance to compete.

Michael Phelps is a son of a policeman and a school principal. His parents divorced, when he was 9. He has an arrest record... And yet, he achieve

You don't understand. It's free money. That's how it works. Free. Money. They print it on big printing presses and everything. You'd better get in line or you'll miss out.

Right. And next time there are elections, be sure, your State backs the winner. Or else you'll miss out big time!

Which party is telling us what we can and cannot think? Which party is telling us what we can say and listen to?. Which party, rather than actually doing something to actuallly help people out of poverty is instead keeping them from that end state?

You misunderstand the notion of Republicanism in its purest sense (i.e. I'm talking about the conservative core of the Republican Party, not RINO's who's only goal is to grow government slighly more slowly than the other guys). It is intended to create an environment where equal opportunity exists for all; it does not guarantee equal outcomes for all, nor should it. That's been tried, and it has failed dismally where ever it's been tried.

Right, because we all know the Republican party stands for "Republicanism in its purist sense." Regardless of what a few members of the party may think, the party itself promises to keep the rich, rich, and uses their ultra-religious members to pull in the poor that have nothing left other than God.

Socialist systems are meant to give everyone equal opportunity, not this de facto caste system the Republican version of an economy puts in place.

Not that the Democrats are shining examples of saintly behavior either, but, I digress.

BTW not to crazy about him getting the peace prize either. But we all know its a farce anyway, so get over it.

Which party is telling us what we can and cannot think? Which party is telling us what we can say and listen to?. Which party, rather than actually doing something to actuallly help people out of poverty is instead keeping them from that end state?

You misunderstand the notion of Republicanism in its purest sense (i.e. I'm talking about the conservative core of the Republican Party, not RINO's who's only goal is to grow government slighly more slowly than the other guys). It is intended to create an environment where equal opportunity exists for all; it does not guarantee equal outcomes for all, nor should it. That's been tried, and it has failed dismally where ever it's been tried.

Of course peolpe helping each other and a solid community are great, but in the context of this happening in lieu of large for-profit organizations providing quality service? I think not.

I bet, you have no problem with the government doing it, do you?

Let's instill volunteerism in young people — and those, who aren't excited by the possibility of unpaid labor, might find it harder to get into college (the linked to bill mentions "college credits" for participants). I mean, it worked so well for the USSR, we ought to try it — but not for a corporation, oh no!

Of course, that won't stop the North Korean population from throwing a spontaneous demonstration celebrating their newly launched space satellite from which their Dear Leader can now beam his messages of strength and hope throughout the world.

Rockets are great for brainwashed populations. They see it go up, they don't see it come down, so it must be in space!

Exactly. I did neglect (intentionally) to mention the impact on propaganda. You do raise valid points about where this test was highly successful.

What's interesting is that eleven years ago, the north had launched a satellite and also suggested it had been playing revolutionary melodies. I guess they need a lift me up every decade or so.

Anyway, yes, thank you for mentioning the propaganda aspect, which most certainly is successful. I suppose I suffer from intellectual myopia when deliberately disagreeing with someone. ;)

What worries me is I was reading an article today calling on President Obama to create a new office to "protect cyberspace" and I noticed this little nugget from the report recommending Obama act "It proposed online "data warrants," for example, rather than traditional search warrants, which it said "may be increasingly impracticable in the online environment." Now I don't know about you, but after all that Fisa crap i trust their little "data warrants" about as far as I can throw a Cray.

If you would like to read the article it is here but after the last pile of bull we were fed about WMDs the second I hear anything to do with them I start looking for the shovel. And let us be honest here: how many data breaches have we seen in the last few years of both government and private networks that were due to plain old stupidity? Maybe they should do a top to bottom audit of their networks to ensure that best security practices are being used and THEN they can start talking about eWMDs. But until then I will automatically think "power grab" when crap like this hits the news.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081008/D93M0E5O0.html

I love how it was the fault of the Mexican government that this man couldn't stop shoveling burritos into his grill. This is the problem with the view that the government should be everything to everyone. Personal accountability just goes out the window.

link to house roll call vote on the "billionaire's socialism bill of 2008"

Personally, I don't want to hear a peep out of any congress weasel who voted for it, or business goon who wanted it (or takes the cash), about "free markets" and "capitalism", because this bill is neither. Those people are big fat hypocritical liars.

Voting yes were 172 Democrats and 91 Republicans.

Voting no were 63 Democrats and 108 Republicans.

anyway, here is my state vote record

GEORGIA

Democrats - Barrow, N; Bishop, Y; Johnson, N; Lewis, Y; Marshall, Y; Scott, Y.

Republicans - Broun, N; Deal, N; Gingrey, N; Kingston, N; Linder, N; Price, N; Westmoreland, N.

across the board Nays by the Rs

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080922/D93C1GC81.html

So, the Yellowcake we removed wasn't really there? http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080706/D91O8E100.html

Note, 10-year old Jewish boy attending college: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080514/D90LCS4G0.html

when he said in his closing statements of "An Inconvenient Truth" that China was on the forefront of fighting global warming. Look and see for yourself.

http://apnews.myway.com/image/20080318/APTOPIX_China_Olympics.sff_XHG102_20080318003043.html?date=20080318&docid=D8VG3QDG0

Now THAT'S an inconvenient truth. Hey, wasn't the Clinton administration accused of accepting campaign dollars from sources with ties to the Chinese government? And then this Norman Hsu guy pops up and starts raising money for Hillary from Chinese immigrants working hand-to-mouth jobs. That sure is odd...

Please do not be too quick to judge nor to summarily dismiss differing hypotheses to the Global Warming Hypothesis

-We do not have enough long-term and statistically significant data to irrefutably prove the emerging Theory of (AKA still a 'Hypothesis') of "Global Warming".
I agree there has been some warming of at least short-term, however, looking at ice cores and other scientifically determined climatic evidence from the fossil records, it has been quite a bit warmer than it is today. (And mankind was *nowhere around* to "liberate" captured CO2 to cause that 'Global Warming".)
I agree CO2 can become a problem involving surface temperatures, but the average global surface temperatures are the results of much larger cycles with time huge time frames (and sometime small timeframes in the cases of massive Volcanoes and large Meteorites, etc..) These time frames humans are only now beginning to understand.
NOTE: CO2 is actually rather insignificant compared to the sunspot cycle and the resulting diminishing/increasing amounts of sunlight (radiant energy) reaching the earth's surfaces.

Some could argue it the other way too:
http://www.dailytech.com/Temperature+Monitors+Report+Worldwide+Global+Cooling/article10866.htm
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080227/D8V2CFRO0.html
http://www.ana.gr/anaweb/user/showplain?maindoc=6157497&maindocimg=6154941&service=6
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c=JPArticle&cid=1203343699258&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/story.html?id=332289

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080219/D8UTC77G2.html

From the end of the article:

Castro launched his revolutionary battle as a young man, organizing an unsuccessful July 26, 1953 attack on a military barracks in the eastern city of Santiago.

Later freed under a pardon, Castro went to Mexico and organized a rebel army that returned to Cuba and rallied support in the Sierra Maestra mountains. His rebels took power when Batista was forced to flee.

Entering Havana triumphantly, Castro declared: "Power does not interest me, and I will not take it."

Also his audience, and book readers in general, might be less inclined to purchase services after the free copy.

Actually this turns out not to be a problem. We now have publishers who are finding that you can give an electronic version of a book away and that sales of the paper copy are not only not diminished, but enhanced. An example that just happened yesterday is the availability of the new Suze Orman book that was given away on the Oprah website. The book is also ranked #7 on Amazon after the giveaway.

From the article:

"I can tell you that with respect to the '9-11 Report,' the free download did not seem to hurt sales at all," Norton publisher Drake McFeely told The Associated Press on Saturday. "There were people who wanted it quickly, in a less convenient form, and that was clearly a different market from the people who wanted the traditional book."

Part of why I pay for a book is to get pages printed and delivered. Part of why I pay for a movie ticket is to have a giant screen and a comfy seat. Part of why I pay for a sculpture is to admire the physical shape of it. Copies of art that lose these qualities/benefits are less valuable to me. Even if I get an electronic version of a book, for example, I'll still pay for a physical copy. Or more precisely, I'll pay for a different set of benefits. Getting one doesn't prevent me from being interested in the other.

Article about Suze Orman's book giveaway: http://apnews.myway.com//article/20080216/D8URJ49G0.html

Semi-related rant: Sometimes people forget that there are a lot of players involved in producing any piece of art.

For Suze's book for example, there were editors, printers, software makers, truck drivers, buyers, cashiers, etc. Before you start with the "without the artist, there is nothing!" argument, let me head you off. Without someone to layout the text there is nothing. Without someone to print the book there is nothing. Without someone to drive the printed book to the store where you can get it there is nothing. Etc. etc. Not only are many people/organizations/systems involved in making art, those people are involved in the actual content of the art as well. The choices made by the illustrator of a book, the editor of a movie, the producer of a tv show, etc., actually shape the meaning, and thus, value of the art as well. Can we start getting away from this cult of the "artist" or "author"? Art is a team sport.

One thing to remember is that on one level art is _always_ the result of patronage. Let's say an author, such as Douglas Adams, spends 3 years writing a book. Well somehow he had a place to sleep and food to eat and clothes to wear before the book was done and could be sold. Maybe his parent's were his "patron". If he wasn't writing the book because he had a contract with someone to publish and sell it, then he was taking a risk that no one would want to read his book. No one may be interested in buying it. And if it sucked, society as a whole is under no obligation to cover the costs of those three years or give him anything for his effort. If he had a contract with someone, like a publisher, then it's the publisher's problem if the book sucks. The publisher who contracts with an artist is taking a chance as well. They are investing in the artist, in paper, in ink, in shipping, etc. with the hopes that they can put all those things together in a package that they can sell people for money. Again, if society doesn't value that particular combination of content/ink/paper/etc, we are under no obligation to buy it.

Now think of the people and systems for music distribution. ITunes and Pirate Bay are two different packagers and distributors of music that's offered to people. Neither directly pay artists to make music. In fact, the record labels rarely pay artists to make music. First the artis

I am having a hard time feeling any sympathy for all these people who report anecdotes about getting less than what they paid for when buying computer equipment at best buy.

Computers and information technology are a critical part of modern society. And yet, even at the highest levels, its getting harder and harder to have a remotely sensible engineering discussion about incorporating computer technology in a new project .. simply because there are people in the room who honestly believe that they understand computers, just because their brother or cousin managed to upgrade their hard disk, or install the latest version of Vista on some dual core rig that they got from best buy.

Unless I go back 100% full time to working with PHD engineers on WMD's and other military applications, Im faced with the prospect of seeing so many dangerously stupid, over simplified plans for automation that completely miss all the basics of good design. And this is thanks to the existence of so many plebs in the industry that have totally misplaced confidence in the completeness of their own knowledge.

So thanks to Best Buy and Microsoft, there are now those who believe that because they upgraded their own hard disk and jumped the learning curve to Vista Ultimate, they are now qualified to design a transaction management system for a remote fuel distribution network. Because they learned how to knock up a web page and embed some flash applet that they rolled themselves in MX, they now understand the internet apparently, and they can 'web enable' your company's accounting system.

Look - good luck to them if they perceive value in buying at Best Buy, but the net effect on the rest of the world is becoming horribly dangerous. Mix in with that the appalling condition of public education (eg - have a look at this http://apnews.myway.com/article/20071029/D8SJ435G0.html), and you have to wonder how bad things are going to get before people really start to notice that we have gone backwards.

We also have a shortage of good doctors, and medical insurance in 1st world countries is something of a luxury. Free, first class medical care for all used to be considered normal for developed countries with a strong infrastructure, but not any more. It wont be long until the common uneducated pleb in the street, the product of the high school dropout factories and the proud owner of a Best Buy Vista gamerz rig, manages to save up his income to purchase an array of scalpels and surgical forceps. Your next invasive but life saving surgical procedure may well be in the hands of some know-it-all 'doctor' who "lernt wot he needz to no abuot surjury' from Best Buy's medical division.

God Help Us All !

So if Best Buy are substituting hard disks for bathroom tiles, then they may well be doing the rest of us a huge favour.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The PRC Chinese poison dog food:
http://www.themoneytimes.com/articles/20070523/chinese_protein_export_scandal-id -104033.html

The PRC Chinese poison toothpaste:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/02/us/02toothpaste.html?ex=1181620800&en=d26dab8b 2bd85303&ei=5070

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

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

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

- Cow milk so inundated with antibiotics you can not make Yogurt from it.

- Pigs force-fed waste water.

- Lard made from separating fats from sewage.

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

China Jails 2 Protestant Church Leaders

The dire proclaimations of forthcoming rolling blackouts in Callyfornia don't agree
eg:
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070904/D8REFHLG0 .html

I changed my homepage from Yahoo last year when they updated themselves.
For a quick overview of news I now have myway though for search its crappy and I still use proper google.

what's their incentive to maintain the networks?

The same thing that's their incentive to maintain all the other things local government provides: did the municiapal fire department become lazy because they've driven the private fire brigades of the 19th century out of business? Contrary to what they seem to teach in US schools, the profit motive is not the sole force for good in the known universe.

what's their incentive to maintain the networks?

The same thing that's their incentive to maintain all the other things local government provides: did the municiapal fire department become lazy because they've driven the private fire brigades of the 19th century out of business? Contrary to what they seem to teach in US schools, the profit motive is not the sole force for good in the known universe.

Since ATMs are opaque and you cannot see the contents of the money bins until you have taken money out, you have to do the "crime" before you can know that the ATM is misconfigured. Thus you are already a criminal.

Incorrect. Simply using an ATM and getting extra money out of it isn't the crime. The crime is realizing that you were given extra money and keeping it anyways.

You're missing GP's point. There's a reason there are square quotes around "crime" the first time around in that quote; it's a reductio argument, in favor of precisely the conclusion you're "correcting" GP towards.

You've also missed GP's bigger point:

But going back for seconds, after having noticed the mistake... now you're talking criminal intent.

Now I bet you that is the real issue here behind the possibility of prosecution. If you knowingly, with premeditation and planning, withdraw money from an ATM that's dispensing too much money, well, that's clearly theft, and the cops sure better try to see if they can catch and prosecute.

And TFA certainly suggests this is what's happened:

Annette Parker, a supervisor at Eagle's Truck Stop, said she unplugged the machine after overhearing conversations about the excess payments.

"The next morning when we had come back in, someone had plugged it back up," she said.

Morris said someone who did not work at the truck stop may have rigged the machine, which keeps records of when the money was taken and by who.

Morris said charges could be brought against the people who got more money than they were debited for.

So, the suspicion is that somebody went out of their way to go to that ATM acting on the knowledge that it was handing out excess money, with the intent to take advantage of this fact; and that somebody may have rigged the machine, too.

The people who used this ATM during the time in question will be checked out. The cops's first priority will be to find the ones that carried out a relatively clear theft as described above. Threats of prosecution may be made towards some who didn't, in order to get them to spill the beans about telling their pals to come take advantage of the ATM. Most of the people who used the ATM will probably not be worth prosecuting for anything more than a misdemeanor, if at all.

Netflix's Web site - the hub of its rental system - went down Monday evening and remained inaccessible as of Tuesday afternoon (EDT). Spokesman Steve Swasey attributed the outage to an unanticipated problem that he declined to describe. Engineers hoped to fix the trouble by 2 p.m. EDT.

Grand Juries don't determine guilt they only determine if there is enough evidence to go to trial.

Here is a timeline.

Here's one of the stories that is available.

Jun 9, 5:26 PM (ET)
By MICHAEL LIEDTKE

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Google Inc. (GOOG)'s privacy practices are the worst among the Internet's top destinations, according to a watchdog group seeking to intensify the recent focus on how the online search leader handles personal information about its users.

In a report released Saturday, London-based Privacy International assigned Google its lowest possible grade. The category is reserved for companies with "comprehensive consumer surveillance and entrenched hostility to privacy."

None of the 22 other surveyed companies - a group that included Yahoo Inc. (YHOO), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and AOL - sunk to that level, according to Privacy International. ...

Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive, said gathering more personal data was a key way for Google to expand and the company believes that is the logical extension of its stated mission to organise the world's information.

Asked how Google might look in five years' time, Mr Schmidt said: "We are very early in the total information we have within Google. The algorithms will get better and we will get better at personalisation.

"The goal is to enable Google users to be able to ask the question such as 'What shall I do tomorrow?' and 'What job shall I take?'"

The race to accumulate the most comprehensive database of individual information has become the new battleground for search engines as it will allow the industry to offer far more personalised advertisements. These are the holy grail for the search industry, as such advertising would command higher rates.

Mr Schmidt told journalists in London: "We cannot even answer the most basic questions because we don't know enough about you. That is the most important aspect of Google's expansion."

Well, I do have a heart. I have been to business seminars and have lectured other employers about the evils of googling their employees. I was talking about the past when I talked about being hard pressed. You see, I go to networking events via meetup.com. The last 2 times I've included a 10 minute mini seminar on online defamation and the dangers of googling applicants.

My tools are a PDF file about Joe Applicant, and a projector.

Joe has all kinds of outrageous comments on USENET and MySpace and even drops some personally identifying things so you know which Joe this really is.

The audience, some of whom are actually employers, after about the 3rd or 4th page, all unanimously decide this guy shouldn't be hired.

Then the next shoe drops.

The next slide is John Doe and his anonymous remailers that he uses to post to USENET, and his use of http://boxofprox.com/ to view the web (MySpace included), and his http://myway.com/ or http://10minutemail.com/ account that he uses to register his MySpace account. They see the details of how he poses as Joe and says all kinds of plausibly crazy crap to make the guy unlikeable.

Unanimously unhireable quickly turns to unanimous "oops, we fucked up" and "WTF OMFG, can we somehow be sued for this somewhere down the line?"

One time one of these guys came back and told me he googled himself and found that someone had did something like this to him. The next seminar I will have him as a witness that this did in fact actually happen and that I'm not just scaremongering.

Now we're going to include youtube education, too.

I plan on taking this public service announcement nationwide, because while you and I feel these Grinches should be fired, the reality is, they rule corporate America. I know. I rub elbows with these people, which is why I started doing these 10 minute presentations.

I'm sorry, I have a problem with much of you comment, specifically, this part:
Republicans used to be the ones who were for... fewer Constitutional rights and lower taxes are only for large corporations.

Funny, it's Democrats who keep telling me I can't smoke in a restaurant... work... within 50 feet of a door... in a bar... soon to be in my car... on the sidewalk... and finally, in my own home. It's funny how when there is an anti-war protest, it's a contest to see who can be the most radical, but when there is a pro-life protest, it's a contest to see who can offend or violently prevent the protest from taking place. Why is it that the Democrats, champions of civil rights as they are, has elevated a former KKK leader to be third in line for the Presidency (here, last paragraph)?

Also, I'm not a large corporation, but I got a tax cut in 2001 because I have a job. If you didn't get your's, I suggest you stop posting here and start looking for work!

Back ON Topic:
Limiting liberties during wartime is nothing new. See this page for a few examples. By the way, Roosevelt was a Democrat.

So, please, don't act like this is a Republican issue and don't be so ignorant as to assume that any of these limitations are going to be permanent. We got rights back after the Revolutionary war, the civil war, WWI, WWII, we'll get whatever is lost after this war as well.

Nah, the Cold War "victory" was of the same type as the "victory" over Germany after WW 1. The Allies beat the Germans, but they left an impoverished, dispirited people who were educated and in possession of fairly advanced technology. The time was ripe for a charismatic leader to come in with promises of wealth and victory and rebuild their war machine. Same goes for Russia ca. 2006.

-b.

The cold war never ended. The soviet empire coming down was a farce according to KGB agents who defected. Notice that book was published back in 1984.

Russia is slowly getting back onto her feet economically. She paid off the last of her Paris club debt from the Soviet era under Putin. She helped Bush stumble into the Iraqi war by provinding false intellegence much like America did to Russia to lure them into Afghanistan years ago. The spike in oil prices has helped the Russian economy. So why was Litvinenko killed? Well, he was alleged that al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri was trained by the FSB (KGB)in Dagestan in the years before the 9/11 attacks.

The US is still fighting the cold war by proxy, even if they don't realize it.