Slashdot Mirror

Revenge (Flaming Lips)
Just War (Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals)
Jaykub (Jason Lytle)
Little Girl (Julian Casablancas of The Strokes)
Angel's Harp (Frank Black of The Pixies)
Pain (Iggy Pop)
Star Eyes (I Can't Catch It) (David Lynch)
Everytime I'm With You (Jason Lytle)
Insane Lullaby (James Mercer of The Shins)
Daddy's Gone (Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse and Nina Persson of The Cardigans)
The Man Who Played God (Suzanne Vega)
Grim Augury (Vic Chesnutt)
Dark Night Of The Soul (David Lynch)

After downloading the files you will need to tag them. I would suggest tagging them as per the names on the NPR site as this is the only official source.

http://www.panix.com/~ruari/dnots.txt explains how this was done.

Revenge (Flaming Lips)
Just War (Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals)
Jaykub (Jason Lytle)
Little Girl (Julian Casablancas of The Strokes)
Angel's Harp (Frank Black of The Pixies)
Pain (Iggy Pop)
Star Eyes (I Can't Catch It) (David Lynch)
Everytime I'm With You (Jason Lytle)
Insane Lullaby (James Mercer of The Shins)
Daddy's Gone (Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse and Nina Persson of The Cardigans)
The Man Who Played God (Suzanne Vega)
Grim Augury (Vic Chesnutt)
Dark Night Of The Soul (David Lynch)

After downloading the files you will need to tag them. I would suggest tagging them as per the names on the NPR site as this is the only official source.

http://www.panix.com/~ruari/dnots.txt explains how this was done.

Revenge (Flaming Lips)
Just War (Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals)
Jaykub (Jason Lytle)
Little Girl (Julian Casablancas of The Strokes)
Angel's Harp (Frank Black of The Pixies)
Pain (Iggy Pop)
Star Eyes (I Can't Catch It) (David Lynch)
Everytime I'm With You (Jason Lytle)
Insane Lullaby (James Mercer of The Shins)
Daddy's Gone (Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse and Nina Persson of The Cardigans)
The Man Who Played God (Suzanne Vega)
Grim Augury (Vic Chesnutt)
Dark Night Of The Soul (David Lynch)

After downloading the files you will need to tag them. I would suggest tagging them as per the names on the NPR site as this is the only official source.

http://www.panix.com/~ruari/dnots.txt explains how this was done.

Revenge (Flaming Lips)
Just War (Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals)
Jaykub (Jason Lytle)
Little Girl (Julian Casablancas of The Strokes)
Angel's Harp (Frank Black of The Pixies)
Pain (Iggy Pop)
Star Eyes (I Can't Catch It) (David Lynch)
Everytime I'm With You (Jason Lytle)
Insane Lullaby (James Mercer of The Shins)
Daddy's Gone (Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse and Nina Persson of The Cardigans)
The Man Who Played God (Suzanne Vega)
Grim Augury (Vic Chesnutt)
Dark Night Of The Soul (David Lynch)

After downloading the files you will need to tag them. I would suggest tagging them as per the names on the NPR site as this is the only official source.

http://www.panix.com/~ruari/dnots.txt explains how this was done.

Revenge (Flaming Lips)
Just War (Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals)
Jaykub (Jason Lytle)
Little Girl (Julian Casablancas of The Strokes)
Angel's Harp (Frank Black of The Pixies)
Pain (Iggy Pop)
Star Eyes (I Can't Catch It) (David Lynch)
Everytime I'm With You (Jason Lytle)
Insane Lullaby (James Mercer of The Shins)
Daddy's Gone (Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse and Nina Persson of The Cardigans)
The Man Who Played God (Suzanne Vega)
Grim Augury (Vic Chesnutt)
Dark Night Of The Soul (David Lynch)

After downloading the files you will need to tag them. I would suggest tagging them as per the names on the NPR site as this is the only official source.

http://www.panix.com/~ruari/dnots.txt explains how this was done.

Revenge (Flaming Lips)
Just War (Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals)
Jaykub (Jason Lytle)
Little Girl (Julian Casablancas of The Strokes)
Angel's Harp (Frank Black of The Pixies)
Pain (Iggy Pop)
Star Eyes (I Can't Catch It) (David Lynch)
Everytime I'm With You (Jason Lytle)
Insane Lullaby (James Mercer of The Shins)
Daddy's Gone (Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse and Nina Persson of The Cardigans)
The Man Who Played God (Suzanne Vega)
Grim Augury (Vic Chesnutt)
Dark Night Of The Soul (David Lynch)

After downloading the files you will need to tag them. I would suggest tagging them as per the names on the NPR site as this is the only official source.

http://www.panix.com/~ruari/dnots.txt explains how this was done.

Revenge (Flaming Lips)
Just War (Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals)
Jaykub (Jason Lytle)
Little Girl (Julian Casablancas of The Strokes)
Angel's Harp (Frank Black of The Pixies)
Pain (Iggy Pop)
Star Eyes (I Can't Catch It) (David Lynch)
Everytime I'm With You (Jason Lytle)
Insane Lullaby (James Mercer of The Shins)
Daddy's Gone (Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse and Nina Persson of The Cardigans)
The Man Who Played God (Suzanne Vega)
Grim Augury (Vic Chesnutt)
Dark Night Of The Soul (David Lynch)

After downloading the files you will need to tag them. I would suggest tagging them as per the names on the NPR site as this is the only official source.

http://www.panix.com/~ruari/dnots.txt explains how this was done.

Revenge (Flaming Lips)
Just War (Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals)
Jaykub (Jason Lytle)
Little Girl (Julian Casablancas of The Strokes)
Angel's Harp (Frank Black of The Pixies)
Pain (Iggy Pop)
Star Eyes (I Can't Catch It) (David Lynch)
Everytime I'm With You (Jason Lytle)
Insane Lullaby (James Mercer of The Shins)
Daddy's Gone (Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse and Nina Persson of The Cardigans)
The Man Who Played God (Suzanne Vega)
Grim Augury (Vic Chesnutt)
Dark Night Of The Soul (David Lynch)

After downloading the files you will need to tag them. I would suggest tagging them as per the names on the NPR site as this is the only official source.

http://www.panix.com/~ruari/dnots.txt explains how this was done.

Revenge (Flaming Lips)
Just War (Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals)
Jaykub (Jason Lytle)
Little Girl (Julian Casablancas of The Strokes)
Angel's Harp (Frank Black of The Pixies)
Pain (Iggy Pop)
Star Eyes (I Can't Catch It) (David Lynch)
Everytime I'm With You (Jason Lytle)
Insane Lullaby (James Mercer of The Shins)
Daddy's Gone (Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse and Nina Persson of The Cardigans)
The Man Who Played God (Suzanne Vega)
Grim Augury (Vic Chesnutt)
Dark Night Of The Soul (David Lynch)

After downloading the files you will need to tag them. I would suggest tagging them as per the names on the NPR site as this is the only official source.

http://www.panix.com/~ruari/dnots.txt explains how this was done.

Revenge (Flaming Lips)
Just War (Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals)
Jaykub (Jason Lytle)
Little Girl (Julian Casablancas of The Strokes)
Angel's Harp (Frank Black of The Pixies)
Pain (Iggy Pop)
Star Eyes (I Can't Catch It) (David Lynch)
Everytime I'm With You (Jason Lytle)
Insane Lullaby (James Mercer of The Shins)
Daddy's Gone (Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse and Nina Persson of The Cardigans)
The Man Who Played God (Suzanne Vega)
Grim Augury (Vic Chesnutt)
Dark Night Of The Soul (David Lynch)

After downloading the files you will need to tag them. I would suggest tagging them as per the names on the NPR site as this is the only official source.

http://www.panix.com/~ruari/dnots.txt explains how this was done.

Revenge (Flaming Lips)
Just War (Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals)
Jaykub (Jason Lytle)
Little Girl (Julian Casablancas of The Strokes)
Angel's Harp (Frank Black of The Pixies)
Pain (Iggy Pop)
Star Eyes (I Can't Catch It) (David Lynch)
Everytime I'm With You (Jason Lytle)
Insane Lullaby (James Mercer of The Shins)
Daddy's Gone (Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse and Nina Persson of The Cardigans)
The Man Who Played God (Suzanne Vega)
Grim Augury (Vic Chesnutt)
Dark Night Of The Soul (David Lynch)

After downloading the files you will need to tag them. I would suggest tagging them as per the names on the NPR site as this is the only official source.

http://www.panix.com/~ruari/dnots.txt explains how this was done.

Revenge (Flaming Lips)
Just War (Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals)
Jaykub (Jason Lytle)
Little Girl (Julian Casablancas of The Strokes)
Angel's Harp (Frank Black of The Pixies)
Pain (Iggy Pop)
Star Eyes (I Can't Catch It) (David Lynch)
Everytime I'm With You (Jason Lytle)
Insane Lullaby (James Mercer of The Shins)
Daddy's Gone (Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse and Nina Persson of The Cardigans)
The Man Who Played God (Suzanne Vega)
Grim Augury (Vic Chesnutt)
Dark Night Of The Soul (David Lynch)

After downloading the files you will need to tag them. I would suggest tagging them as per the names on the NPR site as this is the only official source.

http://www.panix.com/~ruari/dnots.txt explains how this was done.

Revenge (Flaming Lips)
Just War (Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals)
Jaykub (Jason Lytle)
Little Girl (Julian Casablancas of The Strokes)
Angel's Harp (Frank Black of The Pixies)
Pain (Iggy Pop)
Star Eyes (I Can't Catch It) (David Lynch)
Everytime I'm With You (Jason Lytle)
Insane Lullaby (James Mercer of The Shins)
Daddy's Gone (Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse and Nina Persson of The Cardigans)
The Man Who Played God (Suzanne Vega)
Grim Augury (Vic Chesnutt)
Dark Night Of The Soul (David Lynch)

After downloading the files you will need to tag them. I would suggest tagging them as per the names on the NPR site as this is the only official source.

http://www.panix.com/~ruari/dnots.txt explains how this was done.

You wanted to post this instead:

Full album in a single MP3 file.

http://public.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/asc/2009/05/20090514_asc_wholeshow.mp3

Rupert Murdoch has tasked a team with finding a way of charging for News Corp content

LOL, I'm sure he is. The absurdity of Murdoch's news channel here in the States became so outrageous I decided I wasn't willing to subsidize it with the channels I did want to watch on satellite, so I cancelled the satellite subscription and installed an antenna in the attic to pick up OTA DTV/HDTV and get my journalism from PBS.

Its not that journalism isn't worth paying for, its that you need to find value in the journalism that is worth paying for. Values like truth, honesty, facts, and breadth of coverage are valuable and in short supply in some news outlets. Racism, hate, ignorance, and titillation that focuses on those core weaknesses is not something worth paying for in journalism.

NPR is another valuable journalistic outlet worth paying for. Feel free to watch or listen to either and instead of paying Murdoch for the garbage he purveys consider a donation to support real journalism.

Actually, the music is more Alternative Rock, than how you say Techno/Disco crap. It is quite good, so go ahead, have a listen on NPR's streaming page here or grab a torrent of the album in full here.

Alternate Poster & CD-R is $10 if you want to support this but don't want the David Lynch book.

P.S. For Mac users, Audio HiJack is a great way to copy the stream: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104129585

"I hate techno handbag disco music like this..."

Have you actually listened to it?

It doesn't even remotely sound like techno or disco.

You are right, except for the fact, that it already is available for download.
Here you can listen to it: http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=104129585&m=104105184

Here's a direct link to listen to the music:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104129585

Or to download it use this torrent:
http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/1922583/2325666/

I thought we covered this in March. I searched like hell for proof, and only when i entered DOODLING did either slashdot or google return pages to calm me down. Searching on "daydreaming" brought back and irritatingly high FUCKLOAD of returns for today, but next to NOTHING valuable about past stories. Even in NPR, their search brought back only their program "Daydreaming". It's annoying as hell to have these "tinfoil" moments when searching in vain is due to poor searching, but in which quick, poor searching on my part would lead me to thing i am losing my mind.

Anyway, what today is newer than in March on this topic?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-smalley/doodling-and-the-wanderin_b_166440.html

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101727048

I knew i'd heard the NPR story, as i was on my way to work. IIRC, Morning Edition ran it multiple times, causing me to remember it, but i failed to recall "doodling".

I believe the point was the ACLU should focus on an issue that effects the whole population (the story topic of a group of companies trying to control the internet in the name of "IP") rather then focus on a issue effecting a small number of people (torture/waterboarding).

It does affect everybody, er every American. If government csn torture one person it can torture anybody. But even if not the ACLU does focus on everybody, free speech is everyone's right.

As opposed to the way you seem to take the argument that torture of a few is ok to save the majoritiy

You're wrong big tyme. I oppose torture period, even if it were reliable. Which it isn't. Those being tortured will make up and say whatever the person torturing them wants to hear just to end it.

Even the USA's Founding Fathers opposed torture. As general George Washington ordered his troops to treat prisoners humanly and not to torture them. He ordered them to "Treat them with humanity,". "Let them have no reason to complain of our copying the brutal example of the British army." Thomas Jefferson said "millions of innocent men and women, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned: yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion" he asked; "to make one half of the world fools and the other half hypocrites?"

Falcon

Obama did not create the job, it was created before he was elected by a bill passed by congress.

According to the very link you provide the bill didn't create a czar: "In fact, the House version of the bill did call the position a czar, but it was taken out in conference." If it wasn't there then since Obama is appointing one he did create it. As for how he voted on the bill in the senate, I couldn't find out however Biden his VP is a big supporter of the MP/RIAA.

Falcon

Whether he would or not, Obama creating it has shown he doesn't value liberty.

Obama did not create the job, it was created before he was elected by a bill passed by congress.

Who knows, he may yet hamstring the office by ignoring the people working in it.

I am a little surprised to not find any reference to the semi-new "Bacn" (pronounced "bacon") terminology to describe e-mail that "I want to read - just not right now". I have been using a Bacn filter for months on my most used e-mail accounts and it allows me to segregate the stuff that I want to read at some point but don't have time to read right now into a separate folder, keeping my urgent and important stuff (and a few spam messages that weed their way through) into my inbox. When I clear out my inbox, I can then go read my Bacn folder and check out the stuff that may be mildly interesting or useful in some way, but doesn't require immediate attention.

By the way, my Slashdot e-mail is not included in my Bacn filter, because I like to read that as soon as I can get my hands on it - plus, only my Inbox is integrated to my Blackberry, allowing me to read my Slashdot mails in the places where I otherwise wouldn't have access to a computer (you know where that is).

To read more about the Bacon concept, go to:
http://bacn2.com/

And here is an NPR story on it:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14032271

It wouldn't be the first tyme. Rock star Brian May of the rock band Queen, he wrote "We Will Rock You", was studying astrophysics.

Falcon

The teachers' union in Toledo, Ohio, has spearheaded a controversial policy to purge the school district of incompetent teachers. It's called "peer review" and no school system in the country has been doing it longer than Toledo.

...

union members today overwhelmingly support it.

...

The AFT endorsed peer review in 1984.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91327130 Listen to the story -- the text is a poor summary.

Or, is it because meat packers are concerned that people might stop eating pork in fear of the virus?

Meat packers aren't just concerned about it - it is in fact actually happening. Plenty of people genuinely (and jokingly) think that eating pork products is a way to get this disease.

Public health officials have to live in the real world, where irrational behavior, fear, hysteria, and misinformation are enemies as big as disease itself. If referring to it as "H1N1 Influenza" rather than "Swine Flu" gets people to smarten up about it, and has the benefit of reducing damage to the meat industry, then so be it.

Or, is it because meat packers are concerned that people might stop eating pork in fear of the virus?

Meat packers aren't just concerned about it - it is in fact actually happening. Plenty of people genuinely (and jokingly) think that eating pork products is a way to get this disease.

Public health officials have to live in the real world, where irrational behavior, fear, hysteria, and misinformation are enemies as big as disease itself. If referring to it as "H1N1 Influenza" rather than "Swine Flu" gets people to smarten up about it, and has the benefit of reducing damage to the meat industry, then so be it.

Because it would draw attention to the VA. You know, the socialized healthcare system that severely reduced care costs.

...and instituted high quality health care using innovative new techniques and maintaining rigorous quality standards.

If that's what reducing care costs is going to do, I'll keep sucking up the insurance payments.

We're a bit less subtle about it. We've already admitted to Echelon, extensive wiretapping at the carrier level, etc. We've also got Gitmo, prisoner torture, and two wars going for us. Simple spying barely registers.

So... It's like shooting people in the subway system to distract from the fact that you are a pickpocket?

5) It's not really *shocking news* to western news outlets when we do it?

6) We're a bit less subtle about it. We've already admitted to Echelon, extensive wiretapping at the carrier level, etc. We've also got Gitmo, prisoner torture, and two wars going for us. Simple spying barely registers.

http://www.npr.org/programs/waitwait/

This isn't exactly what the article seems to be proposing, but news games do already exist: http://www.npr.org/programs/waitwait/

Any time there is a broad new (read that as "poorly worded") piece of law drafted people always use it to the poorly worded maximum.

No knock warrants were originally to "fight terrorism" - now they're used as a judicial shortcut to bust drug dealers. Often times with horrific results.

Forfeiture laws were originally to return the goods from a crime to their rightful owners. Now, it's a cash grab by the government. They actually find property guilty. Or sometimes not even that much. Then they find the property (not the person carrying it, mind you) guilty and keep it.

Now we have the DMCA, which is being used to stifle competition and strangle free speech.

Why is anybody surprised?

We had precedents of poorly worded laws and what happens when we pass them into law. But when it's the government that benefits, it's hard to convince them to stop.

Fact check time - if they are efficiently recycling their spent fuel then why do they need this: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12837958 I've read about nuclear reactor designs that use up 75-99% of their fuel versus the ~25% of the most common ones in use now but I don't hear of these new designs being built, new reactors are very expensive and I think retrofitting an old one must also cost a bundle. Wind, wave and solar first, everything else follow behind, coal bring up the rear

Do antibiotics wipe out everything in person's gut, or is there enough left over that people get recolonized with the same set of microbes they had before taking the antibiotics? Also, are the bacteria that might influence weight gain susceptible to common antibiotics that wipe out most other bacteria in the gut? The summary had a link to an article on the fat bacteria, and it contained the following.

"The issue, then was to determine which came first: the fat, or the bacteria. To find out, the lab took mice that had never been exposed to any bacteria, whose guts were totally germ-free. Half of them got bacteria taken from skinny mice. The other half got bacteria from fat mice."

"Both groups put on body fat. But the mice that received bacteria from obese donors gained more fat over the course of the experiment."

That must be why America is such a paradise under the Deomcrats.

You have no idea how true that is.

Neither do you .

This is a step in the right direction. However Walter Mooney (NPR interview) never specifies who he means when he says "we": he might be attempting to represent all geologists everywhere, but it is more likely that he is representing only the experts with the US Geological Survey, and much more likely that he is representing only his colleagues at Menlo Park. There is also the possibility he is representing only his own household (himself, his dog, his cat, and his goldfish), but that is as absurd as thinking that he is speaking for all of Science.

Best guess: Mooney is saying that his group at Menlo Park has not found a way to predict earthquakes by monitoring radon levels. If he had been asked to do so, he would most likely would have been able to easily count off the methods his group explored, and he would most likely have been able to imagine several other possible methods that were not explored for one reason or another.

Main points: Mooney appears to have the background to assess Giuliani's work, and is familiar with similar approaches that have not led anywhere. But he does not offer a critique of Giuliani's work, nor does he say he knows anything about Giuliani's methods. His statement condenses down to "We tried some things that are probably similar to what Giuliani did, and we couldn't make any of them work."

The LA Times story is similar to other rehashes of the story. Basically, it is saying that authorities on earthquake prediction have found that none of the other work to date has shown radon emissions to be good predictors of earthquakes. Again notable for its absence is any statement by any scientist that he has looked at Giuliana's specific methodology and data.

Basically, Giuliani's work is being dismissed in the media based on statements of authority, not on scientific principles. We don't know what Giuliani based his predictions upon (perhaps he was seeing radon spikes a hundred times greater than anyone else had ever seen; perhaps he was seeing a perfect correlation between radon spikes and pre-shocks... who knows?)

Undoubtedly Mooney's group at Menlo Park will review Giuliani's data, methods, and conclusions when these become available. It would be imprudent to do otherwise. So at some point we can expect a judgment based on scientific principles. But that hasn't happened yet.

</rant>

Yeah, above is a rant. As I get older, I get increasingly intolerant of the failure of intelligent people to use critical reading skills. Especially with regard to confusing the current beliefs of "scientific authorities" with the actual practice of the scientific method. Yeah, reporters are not making the distinction and it would be good if they would do so, but they are simply reporters, fercryinoutloud, not rocket surgeons. Besides, the responsibility for assessing the value of the written word always belongs to the reader, and cannot be reassigned.

Maybe that's because they've moved out west: Nonprofit news Web site wins coveted investigative journalism award. Interestingly, the Voice of San Diego web site follows National Public Radio's basic format -- deliver a top-notch product and let people donate what they're willing to donate. Maybe the more traditional newspapers could construct a similar model ... that is, if they don't mind ditching their decades-old mindsets of what a newspaper "should be" and get with the times.

tl;dr: Newspapers can either adapt or die. If they choose the latter, they deserve no pity from us.

Here's a quick one from an interview on NPR with Walter Mooney of the US Geological Survey. He basically said that scientists had aggressively researched the radon emissions theory a few decades back but the data proved no correlation. Another article from the LA Times interview with Tom Jordan, director of the Southern California Earthquake Center, and principal investigator on the international Collaboratory for the Study of Earthquake Predictability. Both gentlemen essentially say that the approach used by Giuliani is not at all a reliable indicator for earthquake predictions.

From the article:
Interest in radon as an earthquake signal peaked in the 1970s in California, said Susan Hough, who serves as scientist in charge at the U.S. Geological Survey in Pasadena and is writing a book on earthquake prediction. In 1979, for instance, scientists at Caltech and other institutions said they found changes in gas levels in Southern California wells right before earthquakes in Malibu and Big Bear that year.

"The whole thing deflated when the places where they had detected [radon] had no earthquakes and earthquakes happened in different areas," Hough said.

today= 30.000 nukes = plentiful....the economic, political or military benefit of having one more warhead is practically nil. The big powers, Russia, and the US, would gladly trade between half to two thirds of the nukes for the ability to test them once in a while. Obsolescence is a problem, the number of warheads is not.
After that cut, tough, the numbers go crazy, not for the number of warheads, but for the vectors, intercontinental missiles, manned bombers, submarines and the like. They are already far fewer than the warheads; and the economic viability of keeping the same number of vectors, with far fewer warheads, is shaky at best. Reducing the number of vectors opens up a first strike option that is not in the cards in today's numbers. True, Russia is a democracy, sort of, but you do not do policy by intentions, but by capabilities.

tomorrow: 0 us nukes, 0 russian nukes, france and the UK about 100 each, china 500, pakistan and india 50 each, Israel 50, Iran any number between 5 and 50......did I leave anybody out? this does not look like Heaven to me, not one bit, especially if I live in Israel/Taiwan/Japan ...

The equation no nukes = safer world is to me mindboggling; since the fall of the old Soviet Union, the number of nuclear warheads has dwindled, , but I do not feel "safer".
Lots of "rogue states" have appeared on the maps; all these people have a strong incentive to acquire nukes + vectors, but especially nukes; after all, smuggling the weapons might not be necessary, you can load them on a ship and send it to a big, peopled port town....like New York, for example. Do you think that the implied threat to become the world's biggest Asphalt Parking Lot in two minutes could, somehow, work as a deterrent?
I perceive that people are, to this day, unable to think coolly about nukes, and I admit that these are frightening weapons; but they do serve many uses. For example, no army facing the West has been able to contemplate concentrating forces against the US army. the concept was born in NATO, to deter the massive superiority in conventional armament that the USSR had at the time. No use having 32.000 tanks if you have to spread a division over 25 miles. So another darling of the world opinion, Michael Gorbaciov, offered a "no first use" treaty, which was wisely refused by the west.
So since I am Italian, I owe my liberty not to George Washington, but to Edward Teller.

People are working on such things, like tapping the gulf stream: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16713781 Usable ocean currents are a lot scarcer than usable wind, unfortunately.

NPR has a phthalates story today. It explains how certain phthalates were banned from children's products based on scientific evidence that they were dangerous, but other phthalates were banned just this year for political reasons despite scientific evidence that they were safe.

No one really heard much about it till about '84 or so...and it wasn't widespread, and if you weren't an IV user or having male homosexual anal sex, you likely weren't at a risk back then... I *did* say a few years before '89. Really, till about '84-'85, you could pretty much fsck anything that moved (at least heterosexually) and not have to worry much about dying if you didn't put a helmet on your soldier.

Ryan White and Arthur Ashe send their love. (Go ahead, I double-dare you to suggest those are exceptional cases).

I'm just saying that how people treat each other, society in general, and how the govt. is working against us, was not as bad back then. I feel that life and the very minimun, was much more civil, polite and relaxed then.....and decades before.

Hey, remember that time the US government purposely gave 400 of its black citizens, hell, 400 of its MILITARY men, syphillis, then watched them die? I could be cynical and say "I guess *snicker* this is what cayenne8 considers the days when the government was better!," but I really doubt you think the gov't-sponsored-and-ordered execution of 400 black men was really a good thing. Really, you're just describing what one of the GPs accurately describes as gleeful remembrance of the "good ole days."

>>>The thing is, if you give up trying to be unbiased, you get Fox News.

Everybody likes to slam that cable channel, but FOX News is the *only* news on television that is to the right of center: see http://www.npr.org/ombudsman/2008/11/when_it_comes_to_core_beliefs_1.html - All the rest are left. Even if you don't like FOX, they are a necessary component to balance the dozens of left-leaning organizations like NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, PBS, NPR, et cetera.

I listen to NBC evening news or NBC Today. Then I listen to FOX for the news that NBC conveniently failed to mention. Example: I heard about the Mexican Drug War over two months ago, while other news organizations pretended it wasn't happening. I also learned about the border guards who had been jailed because they shot a drug czar trying to cross the line, and how the Mexican war is spilling-over into Phoenix. NBC never discussed that because they don't want you to know about the southern invasion that's happening.

NBC on the left; FOX on the right. Each is biased but together you get Balanced information.

Speaking of BS...

if a news organization cannot survive in the market it doesn't deserve to exist.

Given that you were mistakenly leaving NPR out of that statement when you made it, I'm assuming what you mean is that the news organizations a market-focused society deserves are Murdoch outlets.

We don't need another NPR-style organization. News is not Sesame St. for adults.

Sesame Street for adults? Since that sounds like a cheap insult, I'll take it as a sign that you're unfamiliar with NPR. Or Sesame Street, for that matter, given that it's a pretty high-quality program.

But, yeah, back to news. Perhaps you're unaware that the market (via the listener contribution model) overwhelmingly supports NPR, and public funding provides less than 2% of their operating costs. Perhaps you're unaware that people trust NPR and other non-commercial alternatives more than other "market" media. There are even studies which indicate its listeners tend to be better informed. There are also readily observable contrasts in the educational value of the programming and particularly the editorializing... see, for example, CNBC vs just about any episode of the Planet Money podcast.

I'd say that far from "not needing another NPR," we could actually use a lot more of it.

Alicia Shepard, ombudsman at NPR, has a lengthy article and attached PDF with charts over here. The main article is about NPR and campaign coverage, but they have something to say about the "general" news bias as well, and not just about themselves; an extract:

Timothy Groseclose is a political science professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, who also studies media bias. He and another professor published a study in 2005 that concluded that 18 of the 20 major media outlets studied (including NPR) were left of center, as compared to the average U.S. voter. Only Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume and The Washington Times scored to the right of the average U.S. voter. (Results are on P. 22 of PDF.)

"By our estimate, NPR hardly differs from the average mainstream news outlet," said Groseclose. "It had the same scores as Time, Newsweek and was slightly less liberal than the Washington Post and well to the right of the New York Times and CBS Evening News. One of the surprising findings is that NPR is not as left as everyone says it is."

NPR got a score of 66.3, with 50 being centrist and 100 being most liberal. The Wall Street Journal's news pages (not the well-known conservative editorial pages) got an 85.1 and The New York Times and CBS each got a 73.7.

Does this mean that news organizations are, on average, to the left of the general public, or does it mean that we've been sold the idea that they're lefties, and we see them through that lens, and this shows up when asked about bias? That's another matter.

Can we separate the concepts of coverage and quality? I would generally prefer to listen to something that sounds reasoned and equitable, though it may have a left-leaning bias, than listen to something clearly spewing, conspiratorial, and accusatory that has a balancing right-leaning bias. I care less about the bias than the approach to the news, to the guests, to the context.

NPR did a related story on the endurance of typewriters as well: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100900163 There does seem to be something about that physicality and sound that people enjoy.

NPR.org