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How can you be the "victim party" that faces everyone's bias and be the party in power?

Gerrymandering.

How the GOP Rigs Elections
Republican Ruthlessness and Democratic Ineptitude Got Us Here
Five myths about gerrymandering
How Michigan is an extreme example of gerrymandering
Supreme Court favors Republicans in gerrymandering cases
N.C. has the worst gerrymander in US history. What else is new?
The Atlas Of Redistricting

'For Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), however, Sloan's efforts weren't sufficient. "You should be fired," Warren told Sloan. "Wells Fargo needs to start over, and that won't happen until the bank rids itself of people like you who led it into this crisis." '

Attorney General to make a demand to Wells Fargo for damages on fake bank and credit card accounts (Nov. 29, 2017)

Wells Fargo cheated millions of customers. The Republican tax bill is about to hand it a big win. (Dec. 19, 2017)

I think anyone who commits a felony should be prosecuted - Democrats, Republicans and the rest.

Interestingly from your link it seems like more ineligible voters vote Democrat (64%) than Republican (18%) or independent/Libertarian (18%)

http://www.newsobserver.com/ne...

The 508 ineligible voters identified in the report are spread across the state, with 36 in Wake County, 34 in Durham and two in Orange. The report says that 64 percent were registered Democrats, 18 percent were registered Republicans and the rest were either unaffiliated or Libertarians.

Which tells me that Democrats benefit a lot more from voter fraud than anyone else, which is why they're so opposed to voter ID laws.

And why they support things like California's Motor Voter law (AB-1461) which auto adds anyone who applies for a driving licence to the voting rolls. California gives driving license to illegals. While AB-1461 doesn't explicitly allow them to vote it specifically indemnifies them against fraud charges if they do vote after they are added to to the rolls 'by accident' by the state.

https://leginfo.legislature.ca...

Existing law makes it a crime for a person to willfully cause, procure, or allow himself or herself or any other person to be registered as a voter, knowing that he or she or that other person is not entitled to registration. Existing law also makes it a crime to fraudulently vote or attempt to vote.
This bill would provide that if a person who is ineligible to vote becomes registered to vote by operation of the California New Motor Voter Program in the absence of a violation by that person of the crime described above, that person's registration shall be presumed to have been effected with official authorization and not the fault of that person. The bill would also provide that if a person who is ineligible to vote becomes registered to vote by operation of this program, and that person votes or attempts to vote in an election held after the effective date of the person's registration, that person shall be presumed to have acted with official authorization and is not guilty of fraudulently voting or attempting to vote, unless that person willfully votes or attempts to vote knowing that he or she is not entitled to vote.

I.e. it doesn't legalize illegals voting but it does decriminalize it in the sense they can't be prosecuted. Presumably California Democrats will be telling non citizens it's 'fine' if they vote just like NC Democrats did. And then if the do vote, they can't be prosecuted and the state can just say it was a clerical error.

I love that one. It's right up there with "trickle-down economics" and "tree pollution."

Here's how that works:

1. You work for MegaCorp in City A. You've lived here for 10 years. You're settled in, and around 40 on the age scale, with a wife and two kids.

2. You're told you're going to be laid off, but they have a job for you in City R, some 700 miles away. The job is yours, if you're willing to move. They'll even give you a moving incentive? But no raise.

3. You pull up stakes, pack up your family, put your house on the market, and move to City R. After a few months on the market, your house in City A sells for around the asking price. However, you didn't break even with the purchase in City R, so you're back in the hole for a mortgage.

4. You've been in City R for a year and a half, now. The economy is okay, things are doing well, and your department is doing well. But somebody in the upper echelons isn't happy with their profits, and decides to shut down all operations in City R.

5. Everyone in City R is offered a job in City X, which is only 500 miles away this time.

You now have a choice:

1. Take a chance on MegaCorp's offer of a job in City X. However, you aren't going to get a raise. But they *do* promise -verbally- that there won't be any layoffs for a year. And you have to repeat steps 2 and 3, with no guarantee that you won't have to repeat 4 and 5 in another year.

2. Take whatever severance package they offer, and bail. However, you're now at the high-end of where age discrimination gets serious, and your prospects are slim at best.

And the best part of this pretty little operation? The silver lining that only those at the top get to enjoy?

It completely eliminates three entire classes of workers.

1. It eliminates anyone with a family.
2. It eliminates anyone that can't move on 30 days notice.
3. It eliminates anyone who isn't willing to work for slave wages.

It's a formula that has worked every time.

What would be funny to me is if they accept all stories based on "being struck or physically assaulted based on my own personal beliefs."

I guarantee the database would then be overran with a million stories of folks on the right being attacked by Union members or Antifa marchers attacking reporters. Worse, we may even incentivize idiots like the person who went to the Durham NC left-wing protests organized by the communist Workers World Party with a pro-Trump message, just so they can become a right-wing martyr. Source

(I don't care what your politics are. If you walk into an organized protest as a counter-protester, you're not there to make friends.)

At that point the database would become useless, because it would be filled not with spontaneous acts of criminal "hate" committed on innocent bystanders, but filled with provocateurs seeking a fight so they can add their name to the database.

Being a provocateur seeking to pick a fight to become a martyr is not unheard of in U.S. history. Rosa Parks, famous for refusing to give up her seat to move to the back of the bus in Montgomery, was not some innocent bystander who stumbled onto a bus, was a little tired and decided not to move. She was a civil rights activist and was picked specifically by the NAACP in order to provoke a confrontation, in order to have standing in court so as to attack the racial bias laws in Alabama.

This is how this sort of thing is done.

If the GOP was dumb enough to try a coup d'etat by Constitution, they would find out that they don't run as much as they think. There is a reason why they lost the popular vote.

GOP won (by popular vote) 3/4th of state governerships.

Nope. Governorships are not allocated proportionally. Check out the raw numbers, you'll find it is a lot lower.

GOP won (by popular vote) 3/4ths of state legislatures.

Again, nope. Check out the raw numbers, it's heavily warped gerrymandering and voter discrimination. You'll have to do some work, but try the ones that have lost in court. Like North Carolina. Who also tried such a coup d'etat as already mentioned. It failed. Badly.

GOP won (by popular vote) the majority in the Congress.

Nope!

63,173,815 61,776,554 in 2016.
40,081,282 35,624,357 in 2014.
58,228,253 59,645,531 in 2012
44,827,441 38,980,192 in 2010
52,249,491 65,237,840 in 2008

Notice a pattern to it? Not quite what you think. They're still behind 2 million from 8 years ago.

GOP won (by popular vote) the majority in Senate.

Oh, you don't know how the Senate works do you? The Math works out in favor of the Democrats. By 23 million.

GOP won (via the electoral college) the Presidency.

Yes, exactly, relying on the electoral college shows where the GOP is failing.

Every election Democrats lost in 2016 except the Presidential election, was lost in a popular vote.

Oh my, you want to play that card? Turns out, that actually, when you look at the history, you're wrong. Check out the effects of gerrymandering.

Add in the illegal voter discrimination, the unlawful districts in North Carolina, Wisconsin, Texas, Alabama, and Florida, and the loss in their Arizona lawsuit, and it's not looking good for the GOP.

Yeah, I know you don't want to admit it, but the GOP can't afford a coup d'etat. They aren't winning. They don't have a wide swell of popular support. Frankly, they're lucky they didn't lose the popular vote for the House this time, if that had happened, they'd have really looked bad, the disproportionate representation is bad enough, but not quite

http://www.newsobserver.com/ne...

It also nullified local ordinances around the state that would have protected gay or transgender people from being fired simply for their sexual preference or identify. It also clears the way for businesses to refuse to serve gay or transgender patrons.

The state has always had laws on workplace discrimination, public accommodation, minimum wage and other business issues. This law makes it unlawful for cities to expand upon those laws, like Charlotte and more than a dozen others had done.

Reaffirms the provision in the new law that gives businesses and local governments the right to establish non-discriminatory policies for their own employees.

That sort of thing is usually considered a bad thing when it comes to rights, since "right to establish your own non-discriminatory policy" generally just means "right to discriminate." Much as "right to teach your own version of science" really just means "right to teach something that isn't science and call it science." But it does seem as though local jurisdictions will be able to pass greater protections if they feel like it. (not about bathrooms though)

Deutsche Bank said today http://www.newsobserver.com/news/business/article71314817.html that it was freezing plans to add 250 more jobs at its Cary location. Feeling the pressure, NC Gov. McCrory today issued an Executive Order http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article71368717.html#storylink=mainstage to rescind 2 parts of the bill, neither of which is the part concerning gender-specific bathrooms.

Deutsche Bank said today http://www.newsobserver.com/news/business/article71314817.html that it was freezing plans to add 250 more jobs at its Cary location. Feeling the pressure, NC Gov. McCrory today issued an Executive Order http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article71368717.html#storylink=mainstage to rescind 2 parts of the bill, neither of which is the part concerning gender-specific bathrooms.

Dunno... let's ask them. 'cause women had little part in producing this cheap-ass, smoke-screen, dog-whistle law (women make up only 22% of the NC legislature, sponsors Dan Bishop and Paul Stam are men, and, of course, the governor is a dick). In fact, this law pre-empts a local Charlotte law that was passed by that city's elected officials... so it looks like all that GOP noise about respectin' the people's will is a load of shite when a state politician sees a tax-free chance to get himself some TV time and name-recognition.

Yes, we are currently in the clutches of a backwards Republican state government so there are lots of headlines about regressive policies. But this is an aberration ( the first Republican government in over 100 years) and it will not last long.

This is just it though. Those "rubes" also vote, and you're going to have to deal with the fact that they will vote for people that will sell them all sorts of snake oil on behalf of rich benefactors, whether it's voting against solar development, or the state passing laws (at the behest of the telecoms) against municipal broadband, or installing their compatriots in charge of one of the state's flagship universities: http://www.newsobserver.com/ne...

As for it being an aberration - I have some bad news for you, it's not. It's part of the realignment of politics in the South. Small-c conservative Democrats have almost universally been replaced by Republicans. There are a lot of reasons behind this, but it's highly unlikely to reverse itself, partly because they've gerrymandered themselves into an entrenched position. Take a look at Virginia to your north - it's much the same way, although there at least the Republicans have a less slightly strong grip. At best it's going to be something you are constantly fighting, especially on off-year elections when the turnout is low.

That would be North Carolina, you search-engine-ignorant fool.

Some years back I when I was working on my undergrad (BS Applied Math), I stopped by an NSA booth at the career fair. I asked if any of the signals intelligence work involved monitoring domestic communications. The recruiter panel said "No, it is illegal for us to spy on Americans and there are signs near every workstation that say so". Agreeing, I said, "well why do you still do it?".

Ok so I was there to be antagonistic, but even five years ago the lower level guys knew what was going.

College students can step up and stop joining there ranks. Here in North Carolina, my alma mator is suckling the teat and getting in bed further with them via a 60 million dollar data analytics lab. There was some student protest in the form of people writing "Fuck the NSA" in chalk on buildings, but other than that, big U's are happy to cozy up closer to the feds.

I ended up going into the private sector and look back thankful that I didn't join their ranks.

You are right, freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences. However, I'd argue that there is a difference between spouting a view in a public forum and supporting a cause through what should be an anonymous donation. Should I be persecuted for voting Democrat? What about voting for or giving money to gay marriage? It cuts both ways remember.

You could be. Here's a church telling you what is in store for you:

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/w...

Here's a fellow who lost his job for being a Democrat

http://www.newsobserver.com/20...

Yeah, being gay is a reason for being fired too

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

Your argument is specious anyhow, because he wasn't fired. He quit.

Oh yeah .. this year .. huge coal-ash spill at a retired Duke Energy coal plant

McCrory hopped in for a ride, with a state trooper behind the wheel. Before long, McCrory and the trooper switched, giving the Governor a chance to guide the sleek vehicle around Raleigh.

It worked. http://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/tesla-model-s-scores-big-win-in-north-carolina-in-battle-over-business-practices/

The following article has more information, including the name and photo of the driver who turned himself in today.

http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/07/09/3020243/durham-mourns-cyclist-killed-in.html

http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/03/01/1894613/nuclear-fiasco-vexes-progress.html : The problems experienced at Crystal River stem from a botched attempt to replace the plant's steam generator. The replacement required cutting a giant hole - measuring 23 feet by 27 feet - in the 42-inch-thick protective wall of the building that contains the nuclear reactor. To save money, Progress opted to manage the project on its own and awarded the contract to an engineering firm that had no experience in such repairs.

The work resulted in three instances of "delamination," a term used to describe an internal separation of the building wall. Each delamination is the size of a basketball court, said Florida's Deputy Public Counsel, Charles Rehwinkel. "They were definitely three separate events, or discrete incidents," he said.

.

The blunder shows that a highly experienced nuclear operator with a sterling reputation in the industry is not immune from unforeseen miscues that raise questions about judgment and competence.

The sequence of mistakes has put Progress in a state of crisis management for more than two years. Company officials are dealing with persistent questions from Wall Street analysts while they negotiate data requests from the insurer, Nuclear Electric Insurance Limited, known as NEIL.

Progress is the root of all evil. (General Bullmoose) ... to listen to the delaminations of their women.

--

I have a clever sig; this isn't it.

.

The blunder shows that a highly experienced nuclear operator with a sterling reputation in the industry is not immune from unforeseen miscues that raise questions about judgment and competence.

The sequence of mistakes has put Progress in a state of crisis management for more than two years. Company officials are dealing with persistent questions from Wall Street analysts while they negotiate data requests from the insurer, Nuclear Electric Insurance Limited, known as NEIL.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/energy/crystal-river-nuclear-plant-had-flaw-in-its-safety-procedures-for-more/1276841 also shows that Crystal River had other serious problems, just like so many other plants that consistently skirt safety regulations and prescribed critical safety procedures:

and those are just from a quick cursory review from a web search engine. People who look harder can find more. The common link in all of these are shortcuts taken to save money and to bypass conventional procedures which are required to be followed by the NRC.

He didn't have enough money because he was underpaid for years: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/10/23/2431759/unc-professor-frampton-asks-for.html# He is also demanding to continue to be paid as he considers himself perfectly capable of performing his duties while he is in jail: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/10/23/2431759/unc-professor-frampton-asks-for.html# However, given UNC standards for teaching (google for articles on UNC phantom courses) he may have chance to succeed in his quests.

He didn't have enough money because he was underpaid for years: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/10/23/2431759/unc-professor-frampton-asks-for.html# He is also demanding to continue to be paid as he considers himself perfectly capable of performing his duties while he is in jail: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/10/23/2431759/unc-professor-frampton-asks-for.html# However, given UNC standards for teaching (google for articles on UNC phantom courses) he may have chance to succeed in his quests.

The difference, of course, being that Lenovo isn't getting any tax incentives.

Lenovo sought no incentives and received none

http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/10/03/2387334/lenovo-to-manufacture-computers.html

There were no state or local incentives. Around here this is regarded as a major plus. We're feeling a bit burned by PC manufacturers.

Another major difference between Lenovo and Dell is that Dell was lured by a pledge of up to $280 million in state and local incentives, which at the time was a record for North Carolina. Lenovo sought no incentives and received none, said state Secretary of Commerce Keith Crisco, who was among the host of dignitaries who attended Tuesday's news conference.

In 2005 Dell opened, with great fanfare, a PC factory in Winston-Salem that was expected to eventually employ more than 1,500 workers. But slumping sales triggered the company's decision to shut down the plant just four years later.

http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/10/03/2387334/lenovo-to-manufacture-computers.html

> >> So if I help someone fix their computer over the phone, or via video chat, and then charge 1-2 hours for my time, I've commited a crime of practicing engineering without a license?!?!?

You don't even have to charge anyone.

From last year: North Carolina DOT has a man investigated for "engineering without a license" because his documentation was too good.

http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/02/03/964781/citizen-activist-grates-on-state.html

What's worse, it sounds like he had excellent reasons for avoiding large, report-triggering deposits. From http://www.newsobserver.com/2009/10/18/146633/lawyers-career-ends-in-crime.html:

[Gaskin] had received death threats and had been harassed for more than a decade after he persuaded a jury to spare the life of a client convicted of killing a popular Raleigh police detective. Some of Gaskins' clients were robbed and tortured, targeted because they carried large amounts of cash, court filings show.

Such experiences eventually played tricks on Gaskins, his attorney said, making him worry that his own life was in peril.

"If anybody had a legitimate reason to believe he'd be robbed or killed, it was Johnny Gaskins," attorney Dan Boyce told jurors.

Oh for fucks sake. THEY DON'T CARE ABOUT YOU.

Of course they do. As times keep on getting worse, the possibility of Joe 99% engaging in subversive actions gets ever greater, so if the 1% are to keep on looting the rest, they need to tighten the grip ever more. And of course, even in good times, "they" are people who love having power over others, either because they think they know better than everyone else or simply because they have issues.

There are no feds swooping in in black helicopters to dig through your garbage and piece together your shredded electric bill.

Of course not. It's spy drones for overall surveillance, sewage analysis to find any "undesirable" habits, and the electric bill goes to the government straight from the electric company.

Honestly, mods, giving positive reinforcement to this sort of paranoia is only hurting the people suffering from it.

Sadly, in the light of Carnivore and Palantir, I'd say it's not paranoia but well justified caution.

It's not my responsibility as a customer to compensate for a supplier's bad business model. But having said that, Red Hat is far from hurting with their "bad" business decisions. A quick google shows me that last year their revenue grew about 15% and topped $1 billion. http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/03/24/1076990/software-company-says-revenue.html They make a lot of money from support, but they also make a lot of money from contract work.

If their support is not worth the money, then it deserves to die (although from their success, I gather that a lot of customers value the support). If we're talking about aggregating software, Red Hat is also not the only players in the market. There's this bunch of volunteers that go by the name "Debian" which have been doing a great job of aggregating software without Red Hat's help. I can get any number of distros that Red Hat did not originally compile.

True enough, Red Hat does a lot of work on the kernel, on Gnome, on LibreOffice and any number of other worthy projects. But they don't do it out of altruism. They obviously think that their activities provide a return (and looking at their steady growth over the years, I'm inclined to agree with them). This is especially true as they increase their custom development operations. If you need a problem solved, Red Hat would be a pretty likely place to find the solution. This is how they make money.

The OP seems to want to give money to Red Hat based on altruistic rather than business reasons. Red Hat did a lot of work and the OP seems to think they they deserve a reward. But Red Hat didn't go into business with an expectation of entitlement for working hard. They went into it with the expectation of receiving compensation for value. If the company in question doesn't value the support, they don't have to buy it. It doesn't hurt Red Hat that the company profits from Red Hat's hard work. Rather it continues to provide opportunities where Red Hat can get in and provide custom services (or even support if the company later decides that they actually need it).

This is corporate money buying off politicians to protect their monopoly. It's to prevent nightmare scenarios like Ashland, OR, which in the year 2000 had public utility fiber optic to every home, and offers internet service starting at $9 a month.

Google reveals that besides the state senate passing the bill, the non-veto vote was likely illegally bought--and--paid--for a long time ago.

"The campaign of Gov. Bev Perdue on Friday forfeited $48,000 for what it said were questionable campaign contributions from nine donors .. The contributors are all linked to Rusty Carter, who owns the Atlantic Corp., a packaging company in Wilmington". link

"NC GOP Shines Spotlight On Bev Perdue’s Campaign Contributions" link

Texas doesn't have a lock on stupid legislators. Look what we've got over here in North Carolina: Legislator says the state needs its own currency http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/03/17/1059132/legislator-says-the-state-needs.html

See now this is what I mean ... these librul types seem to think that every State needs Legislators who are stupid in every single aspect of librul megawrongness.

Much more efficient to send the Rock Stars to Congress. No wonder the States are going broke. Damned libruls.

Texas doesn't have a lock on stupid legislators. Look what we've got over here in North Carolina: Legislator says the state needs its own currency http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/03/17/1059132/legislator-says-the-state-needs.html

No, it's a crime to practice Engineering without a license. As a licensed Engineer, I support the complaint.

You'll probably smile with glee when they drag software engineers off to the gas chambers. The Computer Scientist didn't "practice Engineering". He gathered some data, and sent an analysis of that data to the Engineer in charge. The Engineer in charge was the one too stupid to realize that gathering data and analyzing are not the sole province of the Supreme, Mighty, All Hallowed Engineering Caste.
http://blogs.newsobserver.com/sites/drupalblogs.newsobserver.com/files/docs/dcoxAnalysis%20of%20Traffic%20Signal%20Warrants%20for%20Selected%20Intersections%20of%20Falls%20of%20Neuse%20Road.pdf

The relevant statute is here, for those curious.

Note, in particular the part at the end about "It shall be the duty of all duly constituted officers of the State and all political subdivisions of the State to enforce the provisions of this Chapter and to prosecute any persons violating them." The guy may be senior enough to be considered an "officer of the state" and thus essentially be obligated to report anything that appears to be "holding out to the public of any engineering expertise by unlicensed persons."

Disclaimer: I am a licensed engineer in NC and have worked in the transportation field in NC so sort of know what I'm talking about (and though my company has done work for this guy, I never have so can't speak personally or professionally about him). And for those interested, the report by the neighbors is also available on the site. While it certainly looks fairly technical and basically says outright several other licensed engineers got it wrong, it appears to have several errors of its own. [Again, I'm not enough of a specialist in the matters at hand to say conclusively without looking up a few things first.]

Wish I had points for you. The government's always an easy target, and this article is an opener for folks to vent their frustrations.

It is interesting to note that some of the noise about this is being driven by folks who are using this as a way to make political hay out of embarrassing the state government.

In any case, it's nice to see some informed thought along with the knee-jerk responses to the article.

My bet is that they get their traffic light.

http://blogs.newsobserver.com/sites/drupalblogs.newsobserver.com/files/docs/dcoxAnalysis%20of%20Traffic%20Signal%20Warrants%20for%20Selected%20Intersections%20of%20Falls%20of%20Neuse%20Road.pdf

Reading a companion article sheds a little more light on this (at least for me):

http://blogs.newsobserver.com/crosstown/wake-gop-raps-perdue-and-dot-for-stifling-free-speech

As a professional engineer Mr. Lacy advised the neighborhood to hire another professional engineer to prepare the report. I thought that only lawyers generated business for each other in this manner...

This stinks to high heaven and Mr. Lacy should lose his job over this heavy-handed response.

Technically, that's indeed the best way to win, but unlike nuclear war, people occasionally win at the lottery.

Wrong.

There are times (quite frequently, actually), when the lottery jackpot is large enough to force the expected value of any bet to be in favor of the bettor. Just this week, the odds of winning Mega Millions was 176 Million to 1, but the cash payout for a single winner jackpot was $224 Million on a one dollar ticket.

So the expected return of a *smart* one dollar bet is $1.27, clearly in the favor of the bettor, and much expected returns than the casinos make on the average bet. So you can actually perform better than casinos in the long run (who, everybody agrees, have the odds stacked in their favor), through smart, selective betting on lotteries.

I mention *smart* bet, because the trick is to try to avoid sharing the jackpot. You can't control what numbers are drawn; every combination of numbers supposedly has approximately equal odds of appearing. But you CAN control the likelihood of sharing the jackpot. If you assume that the combination 1-2-3-4-5, 6 is as likely to come up as some seemingly random combination, like 4-8-15-25-27, 42, then the game becomes "how can I pick a number combination that no one else is likely to pick?"

When people select their own numbers, there are definite tendencies. You want to avoid those tendencies. Here are some of them:

- Many people bet based on dates - birthdays, anniversaries, etc. So the numbers 1 through 31 (and especially 1 through 12) should be avoided.
- People's "lucky numbers" are generally far more likely to be lower rather than higher. 6 is more likely than 43. There are, of course exceptions to this rule (like 7 is more likely to be selected than 1, 14 is more likely than 13 (considered by many to be unlucky), and certain higher numbers, like 42 are selected at a slightly higher frequency than you'd expect).
- Most people tend to avoid sequences, like 1-2-3-4-5. (The issue with this rule is that there are a small number of consecutive sequences, so it's too risky to just bet consecutive sequences, as more than 100 people know these tactics.)

There are many other tendencies that have been studied. All you need to do is bet on number combinations that others are not likely to bet on. And there are a lot of such combinations, so it's not likely that you will be picking the same numbers as other Slashdot readers who are trying to bet smart.

I should also mention the tax consequences. You may argue that the $1.27 winnings will be taxable, cutting it approximately in half, and making it a losing bet. Since documented gambling losses are deductible against your gambling winnings in many jurisdictions, this argument doesn't hold up. It may cut the $1.27 expected value down to $1.135 (not $0.635), but it's still a bet that is in the bettor's favor.

Go forth and gamble!

A prominent cancer researcher at UNC-Chapel Hill is fighting the demotion and pay cut she received after a computer server she oversees was hacked, exposing about 180,000 patient files.

http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/10/14/739551/unc-cancer-scientist-appeals-her.html.

I was going to write him and let him know that I am going to happily contribute to his competition's campaign in the next election (despite the fact that I do not live in NC), but he's supposedly retiring after his current term anyway.

Here's a story from my local newspaper about a 20-something woman who's totaled 3 cars in the past 3 years because she was texting while driving. Apparently she learned this from her dad, who is unable to spend 2 hours just driving and must spend the time on the phone and doing his email.

Why isn't she in jail? Why aren't we treating driving-while-texting the same way we treat driving while intoxicated? Do we have to wait until she (or her dad) kills somebody? http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local_state/story/301086.html

There is a reason every insurance company and drug company wants the bill to pass, no price controls and all citizens must buy health care.

I don't know which state you're living in, but in North Carolina the health insurance companies are fighting the bill tooth and nail.

http://projects.newsobserver.com/under_the_dome/kinnaird_seconds_bcbs_probe_request/

      1. Mysterious bright spot on Venus
      2. Scar on Jupiter http://science.slashdot.org/story/09/07/25/1457245/Hubble-Photographs-Jupiters-New-Scar?art_pos=2/ [slashdot.org]
      3. Unexplained high tides http://www.newsobserver.com/news/health_science/story/1620869.html/ [newsobserver.com]

I don't know about you guys but I'm expecting the space aliens to show up any minute.

Dude, I'm going straight to the Book of Revelations, the end of the world. Space aliens? That's scary, but if you want genuine terror, there's nothing to top God coming back to smite all the evil and villainy, especially if you happen to be an evil villain.

1. Mysterious bright spot on Venus
2. Scar on Jupiter http://science.slashdot.org/story/09/07/25/1457245/Hubble-Photographs-Jupiters-New-Scar?art_pos=2/
3. Unexplained high tides http://www.newsobserver.com/news/health_science/story/1620869.html/

I don't know about you guys but I'm expecting the space aliens to show up any minute.

In short, don't forget that a lot of other places fought AGAINST the biolab. For instance in a fairly rural portion of North Carolina:

http://www.newsobserver.com/business/story/835757.html

Okay, first there's a mysterious "scar" on Jupiter, and now the tides are inexplicably higher than normal. (http://www.newsobserver.com/news/health_science/story/1620869.html). I don't know about anybody else, but I'm waiting for the aliens to land.

Uh, no, heavy vehicles do more damage, despite their bigger tires: http://www.newsobserver.com/content/news/growth/traffic/trucks/index.html

1. An article about the demonstrations in Iran. Probably the biggest world story going on today. Big for USA, too, given our tenuous relationships with Middle Eastern countries. Also given Obama's recent speech in Saudi Arabia. Do I need to go on?
2. An article about a local man donating a kidney as part of a national donation chain that involves 12 people. Local stories are important. Who else is going to cover them? The story's too big for a blogger and too small for CNN. This is the sweet spot for local newspapers.
3. Another story in a continuing series about sweetheart relationships and possible corruption involving our previous governor. The N&O reporter uncovered dirt that so far has caused 4 Very Important People to resign. The federal prosecutor has convened a grand jury to look into things. It's apparent that the governor used his position to get privileges he shouldn't have, some of it paid with the people's money. We the people of the state of North Carolina would not have known about this had the N&O not investigated it. This is classic journalism and the reason we call it "the Fourth Estate."

Now go take another look at your local paper. Maybe there's something there you should be interested in.

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/599471.html

It was a really distressing story to see that someone who went out of his way to avoid using oil for powering his car got fined for essentially evading fuel taxes by buying vegetable oil from costo

Slashdot is on to something again! I see a continuing series in this!

Stop Robot Nudity Now!

"Maybe people will want to marry their pets or robots."

Do androids dream of erotic sheep?