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Once people inside the publication or organization get wrapped up in these stories they can no longer think subjectively. They convince themselves they have it right and sometimes they don't but it is hard to convince yourself otherwise.

Two months is not a huge amount of time to do research for a story that no one else has come close to cracking. Just because the guy's bio sounds plausible doesn't make it so. Heck a few years ago a lawyer in the US was a partial thumbprint match on a bomb that exploded in Madrid. In the end his fingerprint matched the bomb maker's partial print and the FBI had to apologize but not before they put him through the ringer. Everyone was convinced he was the guy. They just couldn't see past the finger print match.
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/5053...

Another example is Dan Rather's early career retirement due to back research on then president Bush military service. Dan just couldn't let it go and it ended his career.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush_military_service_controversy

Another FBI example was the Atlanta Olympic bomber suspect Ricard Jewel. FBI got that one wrong as well but plowed ahead anyway.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Jewell

There are many more of these example.

You've got serious problems there if a law abiding citizen cannot talk to the cops.

Welcome to Amerikka. Here's some links from my history.

http://photographyisnotacrime.com/2013/09/06/illinois-cops-threaten-confiscate-mans-camera-recording/
http://filmingcops.com/parents-outraged-after-cop-asks-their-12-yr-old-child-for-sexual-photos/
http://abcnews.go.com/US/court-oks-barring-high-iqs-cops/story?id=95836
http://www.blackyouthproject.com/2014/01/cops-beat-deaf-man-for-7-minutes-because-he-didnt-respond-to-them/
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/11/28/yale-professor-found-dead-in-his-jail-cell-hours-after-fighting-with-police/
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/newlywed-kansas-city-firefighter-shot-killed-duty-police-officer-v21721897
http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/frequently-harassed-teen-secretly-records-video-of-police-stop-and-frisk/news/2013/12/19/80517

Sadly, I couldn't find the most applicable one, where some people who reported a crime and then hung around to see what happened ended up harassed for obstructing justice.

worried about is douche bags with more money than sense, who are not under the purview of the FAA,

How exactly would an aircraft not be under the jurisdiction of the FAA? That's kind of their thing.

http://investigations.nbcnews....

Until the FAA actually creates and enforces a set of regulations in regards to UAV/S, it's going to continue to be like an airborne Wild West.

Infiltration, astroturfing and reputation destruction are as old as the hills. Such as this not really amusing story of a Muslim organization turning in a member who was hyping terrorism, only to discover he was an FBI infiltrant:

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/2946...

I think such things are to be expected. It sucks, but if you've a security vulnerability in any system, you can expect it to be exploited. The question we should be asking is, can online groups adapt to account for such possibilities, and how?

“A new image of urban America is in the making,” HuffPo quotes William H. Frey, a demographer at Brookings who co-wrote the report, as saying. “What used to be white flight to the suburbs is turning into ‘bright flight’ to cities that have become magnets for aspiring young adults who see access to knowledge-based jobs, public transportation and a new city ambiance as an attraction.”

And recently, it has started to become the norm, not just a trend amongst young.
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/23/18441345-urban-renewal-census-figures-show-cities-surging?lite

Big cities surpassed the rate of growth of their surrounding suburbs at an even faster clip, a sign of America's continuing preference for urban living after the economic downturn quelled enthusiasm for less-crowded expanses.

And, the trend lines up with the younger crowd driving & buying cars less.
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/03/why-dont-young-americans-buy-cars/255001/
http://cars.chicagotribune.com/fuel-efficient/news/chi-cars-get-older-young-people-drive-less-20130807

The Times notes that less than half of potential drivers age 19 or younger had a license in 2008, down from nearly two-thirds in 1998. The fraction of 20-to-24-year-olds with a license has also dropped. And according to CNW research, adults between the ages of 21 and 34 buy just 27 percent of all new vehicles sold in America, a far cry from the peak of 38 percent in 1985.

Second, nowhere in the article does he mention New York. He is an urban planner from New York, yes, but he was specifically talking about the tech companies in the Bay Area bussing employees from the city to the suburbs. He's not pushing anything for New York. He's an urban planner talking about planning in an urban area other than the one he is in.

Like this couple that pays each other to watch the kids?

http://www.nbcnews.com/busines...

No need to worry. Usually it takes some years for the first symptoms to arrive.
Near Hanford : http://www.nbcnews.com/health/...

'Gaia' scientist James Lovelock: I was 'alarmist' about climate change

"The problem is we don't know what the climate is doing. We thought we knew 20 years ago. That led to some alarmist books — mine included — because it looked clear-cut, but it hasn't happened," Lovelock said. "The climate is doing its usual tricks. There's nothing much really happening yet. We were supposed to be halfway toward a frying world now," he said. "The world has not warmed up very much since the millennium. Twelve years is a reasonable time it (the temperature) has stayed almost constant, whereas it should have been rising — carbon dioxide is rising, no question about that," he added.' Lovelock still believes the climate is changing, but at a much, much slower pace."

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_...

And now folks you see why Lamar Smith wants to hobble the EPA.

Meanwhile in North Carolina you have 30 year Duke Energy vetran Governor Pat McCrory who has been using the power of the govt in NC to sheild Duke Energy from lawsuits as a result of massive pollution. Spilling things like arsenic, lead, mercury and other things into NC waterways. In every single lawsuit the McCrory administration intervened and shut the lawsuits down. Now you have the lastest massive spill

Was covered on Rachel Maddow's show last night (Tuesday, 2/11/14, A disastrous toxic spill broke NC interference for governor’s former firm) and was shocking.

officials at the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) invoked a provision in the federal Clean Water Act allowing them to step in as plaintiffs against Duke Energy when Duke was being sued by environmental activists over the toxic coal ash ponds at its facilities.

In N.C. for state residents (citizens) to sue, they have to give a 60 days written notice.

• ~ On day 58 of the 60 day notice, for the first spill, the DENR, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, stepped in and said we will handle it.
• ~ The group discovered a second Duke Energy plant was polluting and gave their 60 day notice that they intended to sue, on day 60 the DENR stepped in and said we will handle it.
• ~ The same NC Citizens group discovered a 3rd Duke site polluting and put in their 60 day notice to sue, you guessed it, on day 60 the DENR stepped in and said we will handle it (basically voiding the lawsuit).
• ~ All three sites continue to pollute the ground water (NC. citizen's drinking water) today with no attempts to clean anything up.
• ~ They Duke Energy were fined less than $100,000.00. I wonder how much the clean up will be and as with the oil companies if they will be paid twice. Usually these companies have another shell company to do the clean up and hide the extent of the damage. For the oil companies in the gulf research 'corexit', 'oil' and 'dispersants', you will see the similarity.

The state reached settlements worth a collective $99,000 for those incidents. (Duke Energy)

You see the new head of the DENR use to work for Duke Energy, when he took over the organization, he changed their charter to one of protecting corporate industry and changing regulations so that the industries would not run afoul of the legislation. And yes he is a Republican. And N.C. Governor is a Republican.

Amy Adams, resigned in November 2013, saying she was dissuaded from levying sanctions against companies like Duke since McCrory took office in 2010. Amy was interviewed by Rachel and it was extremely informative.

I would be very concerned for my health, the health of my children due to the state of my drinking water if I lived in North Carolina. Another fail of

And now folks you see why Lamar Smith wants to hobble the EPA.

Meanwhile in North Carolina you have 30 year Duke Energy vetran Governor Pat McCrory who has been using the power of the govt in NC to sheild Duke Energy from lawsuits as a result of massive pollution. Spilling things like arsenic, lead, mercury and other things into NC waterways. In every single lawsuit the McCrory administration intervened and shut the lawsuits down. Now you have the lastest massive spill

Do you want to triple the users and you don't care if you alienate and reject the current user base? Is that the secret plan?

Very much no -- while we don't want to actively alienate non-technical readers, our core audience is definitely our main concern.

People keep throwing out the word "trendy," and I have a few responses to that. First, I don't know if I'd call the Beta trendy. When I think trendy, I think the recent http://www.nbcnews.com redesign. But OK -- I'll grant that at the least, it's trendier than the classic site. Second, Slashdot is a pretty big community. We have a lot of users with a lot of strong opinions on how websites should look. And a lot of users who don't really care how websites look. So when we're making design decisions, the only thing we know for sure is that a lot of people are going to hate it. Our job is to balance everybody's needs, and it's not an easy one.

Heck, there are users advocating for Slashdot's original look from ~17 years ago. Frankly, I don't see a way to make that (albeit small) group of users happy. It's not that we don't care about them, but returning to that design would pretty much kill the site.

Third -- I know a lot of the internal discussions during the redesign process centered on things I think you'd agree are important: highlighting the substance of the comments. A lot of people are looking at the beta comment sections and seeing tons of whitespace. But that also means we have fewer giant colorful bars, links, and ornamentation to distract from the comments. The font choices were made for readability, as was the spacing. It may not be to your preference -- people can disagree about the best way from Point A to Point B -- but that doesn't mean the intentions aren't there. Should designers avoid that because it might look tendy?

NBC News vs. MSNBC.

Not the same thing.

Automatic expiration of laws help weed out old crap, and force lawmakers to *actively* support reauthorization of any bill and thus face any fallout over bills that might have seemed good at the time

They have a way around that. It's a voice vote. They do that when no one wants to be on record supporting a bill, but they actually do support it. That's how the Patriot act extension passed the Senate in 2010.

Democrats have retreated from adding new privacy protections to the primary U.S counterterrorism law, stymied by Senate Republicans who argued the changes would weaken terror investigations.

The proposed protections were cast aside when Senate Democrats lacked the necessary 60-vote supermajority to pass them. Dashing the hopes of liberals, the Senate Wednesday night instead passed -- by voice vote without debate -- a one-year extension of key parts of the USA Patriot Act that would have expired on Sunday.

The funny part is that (after apparent months of bait-and-switch tests) they finally give that beta notice the day after nbcnews.com switches (without notice) to their mobile-frien^Wdesktop-hostile layout, with predictable and proper user response. I personally had to delete any trace of nbcnews from my RSSes to keep my sanity.

Desktop-hostile layouts* are bad, and not listening to users who simply do not want them, like me, is really bad.

Wasn't just the Anonymous group the attacked ones, but other people that wanted to stay anonymous too, like political dissidents and others. Is not the War on Anonymous, but the war on anonymous, privacy and anonymity is becoming outlawed (except for them, of course)

Yeah, who wants pictures? Here's a video of the snake in action: http://www.nbcnews.com/science...

It's really uncanny to see it suddenly going from a free fall into a glide that looks to be on par with what we'd expect from a paper airplane. And later in the video they show it actually pulling off a turn as well, which is even more insane to consider. Jumping from a tree in the forest, I could easily see this thing traveling quite a way.

Radical. Who would think such motor technique could be harnessed by that brain? I wonder if they hunt while on the fly, too.

Yeah, who wants pictures? Here's a video of the snake in action: http://www.nbcnews.com/science...

It's really uncanny to see it suddenly going from a free fall into a glide that looks to be on par with what we'd expect from a paper airplane. And later in the video they show it actually pulling off a turn as well, which is even more insane to consider. Jumping from a tree in the forest, I could easily see this thing traveling quite a way.

One thing I would note though, there were probably 3 times in the last month where we were told we would have snow and it never happened. I think that might have made people feel like this was another false threat.

Here's the thing, though -- there are significant differences in the way the weather services categorize threats. Having a winter storm "watch" or "advisory" is one thing -- and many times these things will turn into nothing. The news media, particularly in the South, often gets over-excited at the prospect of snow, so when one of these things pops up, everyone gets concerned.

I've heard other people make the claim about previous predictions of snow in Atlanta this season. But did you actually receive a winter storm WARNING at those other times? I've tried to find this answer, but it's difficult to find information on that question. My sense is NO -- that previous predictions were NOT actually "winter storm WARNINGS," but merely forecasts or maybe "watches" or "advisories."

In this case, there was a warning issued something like 8-10 hours before the storm hit, which would have allowed plenty of time for people to act.

I think the problem is that people don't generally understand the difference between the various weather terminology. But "warning" means that it's really quite certain that something is going to happen. (Yes, it's occasionally off, but usually in terms of severity, not whether it's going to happen at all.)

Average people may be excused for not understanding what "warning" means, but that's no excuse for government and school officials.

You'd be surprised. Remember Cheney was still in the White House when he came out in favor of gay marriage.

http://www.nbcnews.com/science...

Re provide aid to our enemies in the process... mb you missed the "Manning acquitted of aiding enemy" aspect...
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_new...

"I answered yes, then asked to defend my position. I spent the next 45 minutes in back-and-forth debate involving my bringing out Drake's Equation, panspermia, extrapolation of odds, and many other related topics."

Epic Fail. The argument that there is in fact intelligent life in Outer Space is actually, much, much simpler than you made it out to be.

They'll also innovate their way out of problems if there's a strong economic case for doing so.

Yes, they do. A typical innovation is to move head office to a foreign country so if they get in too much legal trouble in one place, they can continue to operate elsewhere.

If at all possible, the first recourse in the private sector is to innovate your way out of bearing the downside. Contrary to your ideological end cap, this happens a great deal more often than just the companies who've gained some form of monopoly power. It would be tedious just to list the corporate inventiveness on this front (some of which is criminal, not that this makes much difference when prosecutors are left holding an empty cage.)

Here's one they actually caught. Enron convict Jeffrey Skilling has reached a deal to be released early from prison

Skilling was sentenced to 24 years in prison for his role in the Enron debacle. Under the deal, he could shave nearly a decade off the 15 years remaining on his prison term.

He must have given a lot of blow jobs during his years in the can to collect enough cigarettes to make whole his many victims, justifying his early release for good behaviour.

Actually solving the problem is the private-sector recourse of last resort, unless it leads to a future business model where there's a substantial likelihood of being able to innovate your way out of bearing the downside. Now there's an incentive to get the saliva flowing in the profit motive.

The government isn't better or worse, just different. The worst outcomes occurs as a collaboration between the government and the private sector. Regulatory capture is a transaction between hookers and johns to bugger the public purse.

Here's the concluding paragraphs of Michael I. Norton taking the piss out of Hayekian overreach in his Edge.org essay Markets Are Bad; Markets Are Good:

When we think of groups, we think of the conditions under which groups are likely to behave well or behave poorly. We don't often think of them as self-correcting, as always performing well over time, or most importantly, as either inherently good or inherently bad.

Applying the same logic to markets—think of them in this context as "groups writ large"—will assist with the development of a richer and more accurate theory of when and why markets are likely to have terrible or uplifting consequences.

Mainly they behave well when something firmly bars the gate to behaving badly. Greenspan believed that Wall Street corporations could successfully police each other, if the government stayed out of the way.

Greenspan admits 'mistake' that helped crisis

Greenspan, 82, acknowledged under questioning that he had made a "mistake" in believing that banks, operating in their own self-interest, would do what was necessary to protect their shareholders and institutions. Greenspan called that "a flaw in the model ... that defines how the world works."

Oops. By the downside-mitigating innovations of Goldman Sachs, who picked up the cheque for that mess? "Too big to fail" was cleverly crafted.

Unfortunately, markets are not some automatic panacea for all that ails the human condition. They are just one little piece of the puzzle that sometimes weave extraordinary magic. America's founding fathers weren't a market. They were just a bunch of extremely astute men well aware of how easily it all goes wrong, who sat down and tried to do the right thing, acting on moral sentiments rather than market incentives. What tangle of corporate i

There is a reason why people do this, and it's not just lazyniess..

Still, you would have thought they would have learned a few lessons by now.

JPMorgan is buying a one-year extension and will start converting its machines to Windows 7 in July;

Anything that can run Windows 7 could run linux.
Anything that can run embedded Windows 7 would have no problem running linux.
Or OpenBSD.
You can replace the entire motherboard and processor with something 10 times as expensive as a Raspberry Pi for $350, and still save money over paying Microsoft extensions for every terminal.

There will be several companies dragged before congress. There have been multi-billion dollar losses. How many times do you have to let hackers make you their bitches before you cry uncle and at least look at a Linux solution?

How is it efficient if you drive as fast as possible? Fuel mileage decreases once you hit about 50 mph. After that you're driving your costs higher.

A report showing the effect and a chart which gives a graphical representation of this effect.

Time is money, friend.

Apart from the speed the gear ratio and engine efficiency also influence. It could very well be in highest gear at 60mph the car uses more petrol than at 70mph.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/10/nsa-mass-surveillance-powers-john-inglis-npr
http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/19/21975158-nsa-program-stopped-no-terror-attacks-says-white-house-panel-member?lite
"“...there has been no instance in which NSA could say with confidence that the outcome [of a terror investigation] would have been any different” without the program."
Welcome to a world where a vast domestic surveillance system is rubber stamped and oversight is tame.

We need to make the undocumented workers legal so they can be taxed.

Exactly. (If you meant that in sarcasm, you're more right than you think.) Our government (feebly attempts to) turn back lots of good taxpayers who just want a decent wage and standard of living. We can put public records (and, yes, the NSA) to good use: gather info on the immigrants before they attempt to enter, and when they try and if they are able to learn our history without posing an imminent threat to lives, make them legal in 82 minutes--not 82 YEARS (WTF?). This would encourage upstanding behavior, bring in more taxes, bring in more ideas that would give more people here and abroad a job to keep busy, and leave the law enforcers free to properly fight real enemies of the state, like banks.

Certain 'Murican types say that Those Damn Illegals don't follow the law and Took Er Jerbs. I remind them that no one follows the law and we should update the law to conform with basic respect, common sense, and our dire budget--and maybe our new Americans can give them their next job.

When Google acquired YouTube they made the same statement that it would continue to be operated as its own brand http://www.nbcnews.com/id/15196982/ns/business-us_business/t/google-buys-youtube-billion/

Fast forward a few years and YouTube users are majorly bitching that Google is making it very difficult to keep their YouTube account as just a YouTube account instead of a Google+ account.

At this point I'm just hoping that a good smart thermostat competitor will come to market before Google "harmonizes" the Nest product line.

Don't worry, Steinhafel is already making speeches about his victimization and firing scapegoa^W^W^W^W^W^W^W^WShowing Leadership and Getting To The Bottom Of This.

You know, like that Christie guy.

A cop in Maryland tried to enforce it and it made national news.

I find it interesting that the wiki page on chip and pin vulnerabilities http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMV#Vulnerabilities only goes up to 2011
The last news report on security vulnerabilities in chip and pin schemes (that i can find) seems to be late 2012
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/49020916/ns/technology_and_science-security/t/criminals-crack-european-chip-and-pin-cash-card-security/

I found this quote to be the opposite of comforting

In their paper, the Cambridge researchers asserted that, based on their conversations with bankers, "banks systematically suppress information about known vulnerabilities, with the result that fraud victims continue to be denied refunds."

"Denied refunds" seems to have been the main benefit from banks switching over to chip and pin.

How is it efficient if you drive as fast as possible? Fuel mileage decreases once you hit about 50 mph. After that you're driving your costs higher.

A report showing the effect and a chart which gives a graphical representation of this effect.

In the real world, the biggest impediment to fuel economy is time spent in stop-and-go traffic. Just look at the disparity between the City vs. Highway economy of any vehicle. Stop-and-go traffic is almost entirely a result of human drivers behaving erratically

How is it efficient if you drive as fast as possible? Fuel mileage decreases once you hit about 50 mph. After that you're driving your costs higher.

A report showing the effect and a chart which gives a graphical representation of this effect.

Time is money, friend.

How is it efficient if you drive as fast as possible? Fuel mileage decreases once you hit about 50 mph. After that you're driving your costs higher.

A report showing the effect and a chart which gives a graphical representation of this effect.

Or, if they're going to have him testify, they have diplomats collect him and bring him in on a plain covered by immunity, move him around in diplomatic cars, and house him in diplomatic residences.

The last time they thought that he was on a plane protected by diplomatic immunity, they grounded it and searched it at the request of the United States. That's also why Julian Assange is still stuck in the Ecuadorian embassy in London: The UK authorities have made it clear that they will pull him out of a diplomatic vehicle if they try to transport him to Ecuador.

Pooing in space has a well known direction:

Everywhere

Yes.

Yes it does:

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/poop-space-revisited-apollo-10s-floating-turds-pop-44-years-1C9284102

Actually, the loss for 2012 was for two years' worth of payments, so it's more like a $2 billion loss for the year. I could also get into how Congress decided that Saturday mail delivery is a service that no American should do without (even though that alone would turn around the $2 billion deficit), they cannot shut down individual post offices, and cannot allow shipment of alcoholic beverages.

What people don't realize is that while the USPS doesn't take taxpayer money, and hasn't for more than 30 years, they're still entirely run under a mandate from Congress, and cannot make substantial changes to their operations without Congressional approval. When people complain about socialism, or complain about capitalism, they don't see the giant mess that can happen when an organization is effectively subject to both. They have to do inane shit like constantly renaming post offices, but are prohibited from doing the kinds of things, like offering new services, or cutting costs, that would actually bring them into the black.

Since the public record indicates that the vast majority of terrorist attacks that the NSA has helped stopped are overseas, outside the US

Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

Let it be known that uber-con cold fjord has acknowledged that the NSA's domestic meta-data program (section 215) has stopped zero terrorist attacks inside the US and that the overseas meta-data interception program (section 702) has "helped" to stop one, perhaps two attacks in the US.

215: We Found None

702: Only One, Perhaps Two

Even if we disregard the obviously nasty privacy implications, in what way is a completely and utterly ineffective program "valuable"? I mean, come on. This extremely expensive program has stopped precisely zero attacks (source). I seriously hope the ACLU's lawyers are up to the task of arguing the idiocy of this program.

"I would argue that what effectiveness we have seen to date is totally irrelevant to how effective it might be in the future," he said. "This program, 215, has the ability to stop the next 9/11 and if you added emails in there it would make it even more effective. Had it been in place in 2000 and 2001, I think that probably 9/11 would not have happened."'

OK, let's take your utterly preposterous claim at face value. Let's say that this program would have prevented 9/11, and would prevent another 9/11 tomorrow, and has done fuck-all in between. That means we'd save 3,000 American lives every 12 years. Call it 3,600 to make the math easy. That's 300 lives per year. Against the 4th amendment. How does that price measure up against some of our other freedoms?

To retain the right to drive automobiles, we spend 34,000 lives per year.

To retain the right to drink alcohol, we spend 34,000 to 75,000 lives per year (depending on how you count alcohol-related accidents).

To retain the right to use tobacco, we spend 440,000 lives per year.

To retain the second amendment, we spend 30,000 lives per year.

To retain the right to be obese, we spend 300,000 lives per year.

With the possible exception of tobacco, I support the retention of all those rights. Three hundred per year for The Fourth Amendment (and the chilling effect on The First)? Even if his preposterous supposition were true, it would be a bargain at ten times the price compared to some of the other rights we hold dear.

The big issue I see with your argument is Alcohol, Tobacco, and Driving are not rights, they are licensed privileges. Obesity is most often (but not always) a side effect of over-eating.

So 4 out of the 5 examples are not "rights" as defined by the Constitution, Bill of Rights, or any amendments. That doesn't make the point any less valid, actually, in my opinion, it makes the point ever more glaring. If you're willing to defend these 4 "rights" why wouldn't you defend all of the actual, legally defined, rights set out in the founding documents ?

If there is an assumption that everyone involved in tech must be engaged in the same culture of science fiction, superhero comics, and video gaming, then, yeah, something trivial might make those who are interested less likely to walk away after hitting the wall of "YOU ARE NOT JUST LIKE ME!!!! SCARY!!!! GO AWAY!!!!"

You've got it backwards. There's no requirement that everyone involved in tech be engaged in the same culture of science fiction, superhero comics, and video gaming. But a lot of people involved in tech are, and one common assertion is that this culture drives away women. That is, it is not the men but the women who react with "YOU ARE NOT JUST LIKE ME!!!! SCARY!!!!"

Which, frankly, is the affected womens' problem. There's nothing inherently anti-female about such things. It's not enough to say "these things drive away women, therefore they have to go", as if gender equality were the only concern involved and the effect this would have on the men and women in tech who do enjoy that culture is irrelevant.

"I would argue that what effectiveness we have seen to date is totally irrelevant to how effective it might be in the future," he said. "This program, 215, has the ability to stop the next 9/11 and if you added emails in there it would make it even more effective. Had it been in place in 2000 and 2001, I think that probably 9/11 would not have happened."'

OK, let's take your utterly preposterous claim at face value. Let's say that this program would have prevented 9/11, and would prevent another 9/11 tomorrow, and has done fuck-all in between. That means we'd save 3,000 American lives every 12 years. Call it 3,600 to make the math easy. That's 300 lives per year. Against the 4th amendment. How does that price measure up against some of our other freedoms?

To retain the right to drive automobiles, we spend 34,000 lives per year.

To retain the right to drink alcohol, we spend 34,000 to 75,000 lives per year (depending on how you count alcohol-related accidents).

To retain the right to use tobacco, we spend 440,000 lives per year.

To retain the second amendment, we spend 30,000 lives per year.

To retain the right to be obese, we spend 300,000 lives per year.

With the possible exception of tobacco, I support the retention of all those rights. Three hundred per year for The Fourth Amendment (and the chilling effect on The First)? Even if his preposterous supposition were true, it would be a bargain at ten times the price compared to some of the other rights we hold dear.

... which allies exactly? Germany? France?

> I imagine "brain dead" can be progressive.

Not exactly... "brain damage" is progressive, but "brain dead" is dead. The body can be sustained for a while after brain death, but the person is gone and will never come back.

Check out this opinion piece on the recent tragic case of 13-year-old Jahi McMath, and how there really is no hope for her despite her family's heartache.

NBC report that, according to Target, the data includes CVV information. Is this even stored on the magnetic strip? I thought it was kept separate for this very reason.

this?

http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/16/21911592-climate-change-experts-fraud-was-crime-of-massive-proportion-say-feds?lite

He didn't take the money, Treasury chose to invest the money under direction of both the Bush and Obama administrations, in order to keep GM and its supply chain from collapsing. While they lost money on the face of it, the economy gained value, likely in excess of the $10B loss. If the end result exceeds the scenario where government did nothing, then government did it's job by stabilizing the economy.

The harm to our economy from the various bailouts far outweighs the money spent and lost in these things. A free market works well if allowed to, but it requires a feedback cycle. Do well, be rewarded. Do stupid shit, be punished. We've allowed them to keep the reward side but collectivized the punishment side.

Imagine being unable to feel pain. Sounds great, right? It's terrible:

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/6379795/

"Many things they couldn’t anticipate. Ashlyn’s baby teeth posed big problems. She would chew her lips bloody in her sleep, bite through her tongue while eating, and once even stuck a finger in her mouth and stripped flesh from it."

This is what we're doing to big business in America. They can do stupid shit and we pay for it. Their execs still pay themselves bonuses as if they did a good job. There's no impetus for these businesses to do well, to truly prosper, and to be innovative. None. Your rich uncle will bail you out if you have a problem, but he'll let you keep the money if you do well. In that scenario it doesn't matter what you do.

We've broken the feedback cycle. GM should have been allowed to go bankrupt. It would have, in the long run, been a blip. They are a huge part of the car market and the only way for that hole to have been filled would have been for competently managed companies to buy their assets and continue production on their lines. Competently managed. Note

Instead, they get to do whatever they were doing before. It ran them into a hole then, it will again.

The real harm is that new and innovative companies can't compete against the government-backed crap. That harms us all. Greatly. Far more than the few billion that we lost.

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/one-giant-leap-kerbalkind-spaceflight-sim-wins-geek-gift-award-2D11741994
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerbal_Space_Program
https://kerbalspaceprogram.com/contact.php

Why can't my washing machine/dryer/microwave send my cellphone an alert when it's done and I'm in another room?

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.samsung.washer&hl=en

Why can't I turn on the lights at home from the grocery store so I don't have to carry my groceries in while it's dark?

http://www.smarthome.com/android_apps.html

Why can't I turn on the jacuzzi during a rough day at work so it's ready when I get home?

http://www.balboawatergroup.com/iphone-Application

Why can't my DVD player turn off my lights and close my blinds when it's time to watch a movie and then turn the lights back on when I pause it to get a drink?

DVD player? What decade are you living in?
http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_MEDIAPORTAL_1/15_Customization/Home_Automation

Why can't my refrigerator detect what's in it and suggest recipes and tell me what's expired?

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/50364798/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/

Why can't I check to see if I forgot to turn the stove off after I left the house?

http://www.theverge.com/2012/2/22/2816405/samsung-smart-oven-android-app-control

Why can't my sprinklers check the weather forcast and put off watering if it's supposed to rain?

http://gigaom.com/2013/10/10/smart-lawn-sprinklers-cut-down-on-water-waste/

Why can't my blinds and windows automatically open and close to regulate the temperature in the house?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_glass

Are there any other inventions of the past 20 years that you missed and want me to google for you? Or do you think you've got it now? Tech tip: Put the world "Smart" in front of whichever thing you're looking for in your search and generally the first link will be the one you want.

"A corporation is not capable of good and evil, capable of saving a life, or taking a life."

I have to disagree with that. Please don't tell me that some corporations aren't run be evil bastards who simply do not care about human life. The individuals responsible for the corporate dealings should be facing the death penalty. And, the corporation's assets should be liquidated, and given to it's victims. I could find a lot more like this - but I'm sure you can do it yourself, if you care to look.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/death-toll-in-bangladesh-garment-factory-fire-rises/

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/02/21714872-deadly-factory-fire-highlights-near-slavery-conditions-in-italy