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Yes, of course, no one even mentions energy efficiency, which is why the Obama administration has been pushing for more energy efficient lighting, applicances, homes, automobiles, and industry. But don't tell anyone I mentioned it. It's a secret!

So lets look at your belief using US national averages. In Dec 2008, last full month of Bush the average price of gas was $1.61 under Obama yesterdays average was $2.82. If we look at the historic chart of national gas averages the only other the price of gas was this high this early in the year was the ramp up to the major oil speculation that took place in 2006.

First off, you cited zero sources to back up your claims.

Secondly, you are comparing the price of gas in the middle of winter (when it is traditionally at its lowest) to the price of gas at the beginning of spring (when it traditionally starts to ramp up.)

Lastly, you forget just how bad things got. You are also forgetting that gas reached over FOUR DOLLARS A FREAKIN' GALLON in Bush's last year as President. Scroll down to the bottom of that second link for the graph.

Oh, an look at that...in November, when Obama won, the price plummeted. Whodathunkit.

No. First of all, animals raised in human company are pretty much permanently stuck in a juvenile state. They have not been taught to fend for themselves and the urban and suburban environments aren't the same thing as "the wild" - available resources are far more restricted. Don't think that because your cat occasional brings a bird to the stoop that it could live a healthy life without any human support.

I think we should do an experiment. Release pets into the wild and see what happens.

Nature always finds a way.

These pigs, they're putting running shoes on them?

No, they don't. Comcast will still be Comcast.

Comcast's services (High Speed Internet, digital TV, etc) are being rebranded Xfinity.

So, class, let's use 'Xfinity' in a sentence. Repeat after me: "When you have no other competitors in your local area, you pick up a phone and order Xfinity from Comcast."

The IOC (and various Country Olympic Committees) have been abusing this stuff for a while now. Take a look at http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2010007020_olympian06m.html for some more insanity. In Beijing they would cover brands up with tape. On faucets. On light switches. And just about everywhere else. Check it out here: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080818/1248442014.shtml This is just complete insanity. I whole-heartedly that it might be high time we say to the IOC and the USOC to go fuck themselves, pull out of the revelant treaties and start a new high-profile sporting event.

Good guess. Businessweek is forecasting this to cost $3-8000 per home. At 5 year amortization and 8% interest, that's $60-140 per month. Knowing Google, they'll leverage off the shelf technologies and clever networking to come in under the low end.

With cities like Seattle volunteering rights-of way and in-place dark fiber infrastructure, this looks doable. Throw in some guaranteed paid subscriptions by city services like police, fire and so forth to seed the project and we're on! Maybe we don't even need Google for this one.

This is what happens when the corporate culture gives employees tacit approval to conduct such scams.

I thought everyone had seen that video. That it was the XXXtreme version of Two Girls, One Cup. Hmmm . . .

I'll start you off soft with a news article, with no pic/vid . . . News item.

Then we'll ease you up to reax.

I'm not gonna link to the video itself. It falls under the heading of shit you cannot unsee. Suffice it to say, if you search for the terms "man fucked to death by horse" or "mr hands video" you will find it.

I remember seeing this video on Joe Rogan's blog (already off to a bad start) where he was talking about Two Girls, One Cup and expressing exasperation that anyone would care after all the vile shit that was posted on the internet way before that.

1) "By signing here, you indicate that you have fully read these forms and that all information is correct, blah blah blah"

Rather you believe the information is correct; that's the actual wording. Not that the distinction is important to the IRS - if there is an error it's considered willful and done with intent to defraud the Government. Regardless of the actual source of the error (which can include the directions of IRS employees).

2) It's generally self-employed people claiming rather questionable deductions who have trouble with audits, not regular 'workers'.

Tell that to the stylist audited because the IRS believed she didn't make enough. It's not about possible errors, it's about picking on the weakest and those most likely to settle and pay up.

I've been audited 5 times in the last 8 years, and I do not claim any questionable deductions. No deduction for my at-home office, no mileage (even though I do drive to client offices), etc. Things many of my self-employed friends regularly claim and never get audited for.

What I do have is the unfortunate history of having been wrongfully attacked by the IRS in the past, and having successfully defended myself. And I quite sure the reason for my current high-flag-status is because of that previous encounter. Not that it can be proven beyond any doubt, of course...

The IRS is in BUSINESS to collect, process, and audit (the incorrect) returns.

Oh, they audit correct returns, too! And they'll come up with completely bogus numbers as well forcing you into the position of being guilty and having to prove your innocence. If they think you made too little based upon where you live - even if you can prove it was enough - you'll still get audited and forced to prove your innocence.

No, it doesn't. All the ex-USN F-14's are being destroyed to prevent parts from entering Iranian hands. IIRC, they have an enormous guillotine with which they cut through key structural components. Smaller items like electronics are probably removed separately. The inventory of spare parts will be destroyed too.

So, the comment which you referred to as "bull" was actually correct, if you want to own a piece of F-14, you're going to have to have friends in Iran (or be one of a handful of privileged museums).

In Japan it happened in 2008. Narita customs officers inserted some cannabis into a passenger's luggage to check their security, but the passenger slipped through and went home with the drugs. The passenger returned the drugs, and those responsible were punished.

It seems that this is a systematic way of "quality assurance" in airport security around the world. Unfortunately, when mistakes occur, it creates plausible deniability for anyone caught with contraband.

On the other hand, maybe it brings us one step closer to realizing the stupidity of security theatre...

The anti-Israel hysteria here is appalling.

No kidding. Let's check out some other stories from the ME:

Insurgents kill 50 in car bombings in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq

Hmm, no outrage. Maybe if they listed the electronics also damaged, people would feel something.

Blast kills 33 near lawmaker's home in Pakistan

Well, Israel didn't do it, so apparently it's ok.

Iraq attacks kill more than 100...Insurgents strike in central Pakistan

Still no outrage... It's ok as long as Israel isn't killing them? Or is it that no laptop was involved?

Ok, one more:

Police shoot U.S. student's laptop upon entry to Israel

Wait, what? A story where an Israeli did something other than get blown up by a terrorist? OUTRAGE! Call out the nutjobs and crazies! Quick, before we read any details or facts!

Ok, maybe a tad dramatic. But these people flipping out because of this story really need to put this in perspective. If this story upsets you, and those others don't, you really ought to examine your priorities.

Which they've fixed.

Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner on Monday successfully completed the wing test the jet failed last May, and now looks set to fly before Christmas, according to two sources familiar with the test outcome.

Engineers are still analyzing data from the repeat test and haven't yet given the official thumbs-up, but the composite fibers in the wing did not delaminate when it was bent to the same point as in the previous test, the sources said..

Again, it has to pass the design limit test before the FAA will let it fly, so since it just flown, they've proven it's safe.

With noble souls like these, who needs corruption?

With noble souls like these, who needs corruption?

From TFA (see the Seattle Times link):

"A group called Protect Marriage Washington circulated a petition to put the domestic partnership law before the voters. Under the Washington state constitution, voters have the power to reject any law through the referendum process."

These people are not trying to defend marriage.

Just in case you missed it in the other link, the folks who put up the website displaying the petition names are actually for civil unions, just to clear that up. I think the intent was to shame the folks who actually signed the petition to get this on the public ballot in hopes of defeating this civil unions bill.

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/reader_feedback/public/display.php?thread=198053&offset=0&column=create_date&direction=DESC

Join the discussion. Refute the arguments.

Name and shame? I'm quite proud that I oppose the gay agenda. Peter puffing ain't American. And, I'll thank you to stop comparing queer to being black, or Baptist, or Catholic, or male or female, or whatever else.

A "lifestyle" is not an inherited condition of your being.

this is a fairly googleable event. Example coverage: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004412250_brits14.html

No one else finds this unhealthy? Why are we discussing this as if enforcement is the problem? Giving the government the ability, and the excuse..."Well you have a cell phone out, I have probable cause to suspect that you were texting, or talking while driving." - Pardon me, but gtfo officer. You have no right to invade the privacy of my vehicle over this. I don't care if it is 'safer'. SCREW SAFE. How many of you eat while driving? With one knee on the wheel...in the rain? We should outlaw knees, lets chop everyone's legs off! We don't need them to sit in a cubicle! Alot of people who drive on the weekends are on drugs: http://blogs.abcnews.com/theworldnewser/2009/07/16-of-weekend-drivers-test-positive-for-drugs.html - 16% of all the people that you passed were doing drugs. Yep, that means we need to make driving on the weekends a felony. Lets keep our economy healthy here, we will only allow the proliteriat to drive on days where they are going to work, to make the economy strong. We don't want to be like those pot heads. You want to tell me that denying an applicant the right to work (a person applying for a Commercial Drivers License) because they were TEXTING? How does this help anyone? Drug users are people like you and me: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004001227_bus08m.html This woman not only knows that the current drug law is wholly against the spirit of the constitution, but she carries a gun! I love her...Did you notice the part about her saving 22 kids? Thank god for this new law, it would keep people like her from driving our precious, precious cargo, you know the ones we are too busy to spend time with. I wonder if she texts too? If you are all really so scared that a bus driver texted once, then I put forth that you shouldn't let someone else drive your kids to school. You should transport them every morning by armored car. Obama shouldn't be using executive orders for this, no president should. May a court overturn it. You want to legislate? Do it properly!

And the Gates' too. Why think of all the construction wages and taxes they must have paid on the new Gates Foundation Campus. This lavish facility, costing $2 Billion - a mere 5% of the foundation's capital - will be a magnet to the great humanitarians of our time. They'll fly in from all over the world on their private jets to this quiet 12 acre parklike sanctuary in the heart of Seattle where they can serenely contemplate how to best relieve the plight of the world's poor while their needs are supported by 1,200 employees. In between spa treatments and lavish dining they'll confer with other great minds, and hopefully the breakthrough thinking that has evaded us all these centuries can finally occur! At their leisure they can view the historic 15,000 square foot museum that tells of the Foundation's work. Naturally armed guards will discreetly keep them free of distraction caused by the 7,000 homeless people living only a few blocks away.

Why, look at this vision:

Sinclair said the two intersecting, light-filled, V-shaped buildings with a private, landscaped courtyard symbolize the organization's connection to Seattle and its efforts to reach out to the people around the world.

"When I look at the building I think they're like boomerangs that you throw out and they come back," she said.

The nearly transparent structure -- including glass interior walls and fixtures -- is supposed to elicit confidence in the foundation's mission, by making the enterprise inside clear to the outside world, as well as connect the people who work at the foundation, said Steve McConnell, design partner at NBBJ, the Seattle-based architects for the project.

Doesn't it just make you aspire to lend your hands to their noble cause?

Guess who pays for the construction costs? Hint: it's not Microsoft.

Actually, MS pays half the cost of the new bridge, and it's totally open for public. Hint: you're an idiot.

Beware. Taking a statement that's worded as if it were a fact (such as `Austin cops routinely have orgies in the backroom with arrested hookers!') and prefacing it with `It is my opinion that ...' does not automatically mean it's can't be libel.

More details ... More ...

Please read the gave a response link.

No amount of astroturf can cure the ridiculousification of messages in TFA.

> it does look like a whole lot like a Barrett .50 sniper rifle

Maybe if you look at it upside down with an astigmatism. But it is similar to the French GIAT FAMAS rifle or the canceled H&K XM8.

The Seattle area was also somewhat sensitized by a guy closed down I-5 last week after firing shots from "an AK-47-style rifle." I find it interesting that the normally anti evil assault weapons Seattle Times made the distinction that it was not an actual (i.e. full automatic capable) AK-47.

Of course, Seattle is not exactly 2nd Amendment friendly under the best of circumstances.

Disclaimers: I live a few houses down from the station owner, so I've followed this for a while. I was a broadcast engineer in a past life (even did some contracting at a former iteration of this station.)

Here is the story from the local paper: http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20090905/NEWS01/709059909&news01ad=1 (good set of pictures)

From the Seattle Times version: "Andy Skotdal, general manager of the family-owned sports-radio station, isn't convinced ELF is responsible, even though the group's North American press office in Washington, D.C., issued a news release and posted an item on its national Web site Friday saying it was.

He suspects disgruntled locals who have long opposed the siting of the towers on 40 acres of farmland may have taken matters into their own hands after losing a key ruling in King County Superior Court a few weeks ago.

"My suspicion is, it's somebody local," Skotdal, whose family has owned the station for 20 years, said by phone Friday as he watched dozens of sheriff's detectives and FBI agents comb the property for evidence. "It could be somebody painting ELF on a banner to throw off suspicion."

In the same story, the FBI sees a few things that point to ELF but they are only a day into the investigation. I'd lay away from making a call right now on who is responsible.

Either way, stealing a excavator, driving it through a muddy field and pulling down two towers has to leave a good amount of evidence. I'm also thinking that the guy wires must have been cut too, just to keep from kill the machine operator on the first tower.

Note: the Kilimanjaro link is actually the 4th one in the article, but I thought you might prefer a direct link.

...briefly mentioned in TFA actually gives 100% immunity in mice and is about to start human trials.

A lot of human misery is going to go away when we get this working. And a lot of Africans and Asians are going to see huge boosts to their economies when workers are not having to take 1-2 weeks off work each year to either recover from malaria or help a family member do so.

Tried translating that, and sort of got the gist of it using an online translator here, though a little hard to understand at http://babelfish.yahoo.com/

I won't translate the whole thing, but I noticed this tidbit :

"The people's net - game channel country news General publications administration concerned people in charge on 21st in the evening pay attention to "Evil spirit Beastly World" on the society examine and approve the related question to accept reporter to interview."

World of Warcraft somehow translates to "Evil Spirit Beastly World" here - maybe that doesn't sound like much in western culture, but I'll bet that a lot of Chinese find the thought of a world of evil spirits terrifying, and not something to risk tampering with or provoking. Basing this off "In Chinese thought, the world is populated by a vast number of spirits, both good and evil. Such spirits include nature demons (kuei-shen), evil spirits or devils (oni), and ghosts (kui)." a couple of links I found here and here. Could be one of the factors in the delay.

Pollution and such can be handled easily through protection of life and property - if you damage either - you are liable.

And who pays for hurricane damage or for flooded land? What about health problems from poison ivy?

The answer to all of it is to protect individual rights and freedoms

By what mechanism? How do you protect Indonesia or Venice from submerging? How is an Inuit protected from thin ice while out hunting? Inuits are already paying for the West's use of chemicals like PCBs which bioaccumulates. Puget Sound is contaminated with PCBs and other man made chemicals. Orcas and other wildlife can be driven extinct in the Sound because of them.

Falcon

It's interesting that the brief linked to mentions radar hits with readouts of 14500 and 14900 feet but doesn't say anything about whether the aircraft was equipped with an O2 system or not. Above 12500 the pilot would be required to use supplemental O2 by FAR. Extended periods near 15000 without oxygen would definitely set you up for impaired judgement. Maybe it's considered in another document but it's not in the brief.

In contrast, the NTSB specifically mentioned lack of supplemental O2 in another crash: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009415709_webntsb04.html

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/6420ap_wa_fisher_plaza_fire.html?source=mypi

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009415646_webfisherplaza04.html

Thank you, Good Citizen PinchDuck, for your higher intelligence level. Invariably, someone will post that the article is right, and there are just too many dumb f**ks who don't comprehend software engineering or computer sci --- I can't speak to that at this very time, but am aware of far too many pioneer types, such as myself, who have long ago given up on getting hired by any Americanski outfit - so we work for ourselves, or hack for our own pleasure. In the state I divide part of my time in, Washington, the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce (together with their Trade Alliance) gave seminars to local corporations - in the early '00s - on how to smoothly offshore American jobs and realize the most labor and tax savings. Predictably, tax revenues have been falling over the past years, and now dramatically so with the most recent wave of offshoring.

Not too though, the brilliant pols have another SOLUTION to this situation.

Americans will soon be realizing (even the blithering idiots who voted for Nixon, Reagan, Bush, etc.) that we have finally reached critical mass in the offshoring of American jobs - from this point on we'll be experiencing cascading unemployment of local, shrinking consumer-type employment (the type which requires citizens with jobs).

So I guess Mr. Nayar will soon have to include many of his fellow country men (and women). Washington State Governor just signed legislation to allow H1B workers and their dependents to gain residency rates on tuition at Washington States colleges and universities. This was, of course, spearheaded by former Microsoft employee turned state representative, Ross Hunter.

So will Microsoft and the other high tech companies in the Northwest not consider hiring US trained H1B workers in the future? I think not.

Story here @ the Seattle Times

• game developers are learning Objective C, Cocoa, and libraries like Core Animation,
• game developers seem to like the Apple platform and tools,
• games are being ported to and developed for OS X, which is really "Mac OS X Mobile Edition".

Together, these substantially reduce the marginal costs of, and the psychological barriers to, porting games to Mac OS X. Apple could do a few things to shake the gaming industry up even more.

• License Mac OS X and/or iPhone OS X to another game console maker for next generation consoles.
• Extend the reach of Apple TV into the gaming console market by adding some horsepower, features, and accessories.
• Buy one or more prominent game content makers, like, oh, say... Blizzard Entertainment, perhaps.

Those sort of moves might seem unlikely, but might not be all that far fetched. Licensing OSX to a game console maker is even conceivable, since it doesn't present the threat that licensing to clone makers did to the Mac. One such licensing agreement would vault Cocoa to the top gaming platform.

Apple could absorb a few game content providers without smothering the life out of them, as apparently the Microsoft acquisition of Bungie threatened to do, until Bungie managed to burst out of Microsoft screaming, "liberation!"

After countless resources wasted by the IRS and the University of California system, it looks like some sanity has finally set in.

Besides the fact that the IRS should not have enforced this law (much less choose another mostly governmental agency as its first (and only?) target), the sad thing is that there was some Congressional movement last year when the settlement between the two parties was first reached:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008078765_celltaxes29.html

I guess elections, eroding economy and the wars were all higher priority.

Of course, the victim in this case is the citizens of the United States (and the state of CA gets the double whammy) as we have all contributed to the IRS's audit process as well as the settlement/change in policy (which is looking like it is going to get changed back) by the UC system.

http://controller.berkeley.edu/policies/cellphone.htm

I wonder how many hours were wasted in auditing, lawyering, administrating and...IT professional hours changing the systems for the new policy implementation...

Do it right.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002168937_coffeemug03.html

Sue them.

While America has a law requiring a model's consent for photographs of them to be used for commercial purposes, this is not generally true in the rest of the world. I don't claim to know anything about Czech law, but I suspect if the story you linked happened there he wouldn't have a leg to stand on.

OTOH, it seems in this case the image was also used without a copyright license, so some form of legal redress would be available. The likely procedes, however, are probably too small to be worthwhile: single instance of copyright violation, I'd guess there's no statutory damages in Czech law so you'd have to prove actual losses, which would amount to a reasonable fee for using the photo, which would likely amount to a stock photo licence fee of about $1-500.

Do it right.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002168937_coffeemug03.html

Sue them.

"Where? Source please."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/technologybrierdudleysblog/2009296568_e3_new_info_on_microsofts_nata.html

http://kotaku.com/5279531/microsoft-project-natal-can-support-multiple-players-see-fingers

"Its 48 *points* not joints, which doesn't really tell us much, because you might need multiple points to reconstruct a joint from the data."

Sorry yes to be pedantic you're correct, but of course interest points aren't redundant, you wouldn't have two on the same arm for example, you may have two either side of a joint, or you may simply track the joints themselves so it does tell us a lot, you'd at most need two points to reconstruct a joint but one of those points would overlap with another joint for example so you may have two points on your arm, one on your upper arm and one on your lower arm to track your elbow, but the lower arm one would also work in conjunction with ones on your hand and your upper arm one would work in conjunction with one on your upper body to track your shoulder and so forth. The effect with interest points is exactly the same.

"I have seen all of them and all of them support my claims. You accelerate in Burnout by moving your whole leg forward, not by lifting your foot, not by lifting your finger. None of the demos I have seen requires anything beyond arm & leg detection. If you know one, show me."

See above sources for people who have used it hands on if you want even more evidence, or simply pay more attention to many of the various videos from ricochet to painting to note that hands, feet, wrist movements are all being registered.

"You might want to watch the videos yourself before posting, hint: bottom left corner right at the start:

"Product vision: actual features and functionality may vary""

It's a bit silly to infer things from that to try and make your point, promotional videos always have this because if something is even slightly different, such as a dashboard change not related to Natal itself they are not covered in lawsuit happy USA from false advertising. This is particularly the case when showing pre-release content as they are here, games change all the way up until release and we're probably at very least a year off release of Natal.

"Of course it could work, but it would be awkward. Motion detection needs a split-controller to work properly, otherwise both your hands are locked in place and won't have much freedom to move."

I think you missed the point, there's no reason you need split controllers for what I'm suggesting. My point is that for example, you can have your existing games like Gears of War but use your body to dodge and such on top. The Wii cannot provide anything like Gears of War and other high end shooters as is, so if Microsoft is taking a step even further ahead that's a plus for them. There is concern that because Microsoft and Sony jumped on the bandwagon too late that no one will develop for their new kit, but in the worst case Microsoft's tech can be used to enhance even classic games meaning in the absolute worst case you'll get a raft of titles that are enhanced by Natal.

"It lived up to my expectations perfectly well, because I based my expectations on its technical capabilities, not on what fanboys hoped it could do (i.e. my expectations where very low to begin with)."

There's a difference between what's hoped it could do and what it could actually do. Even Wii sports, it's original headline title fails to respond to the Wii mote correctly sometimes.

"With MotionPlus I can apply slice to a tennis or golf ball, Natal doesn't have any way to do that."

Apart from recognising exactly those motions as we've been through over and over here?

Still, you can't see the evidence when it's right in front of yo

Like the taxes that paid for this bridge?

These days large corporations expect the government to pay for the land their buildings sit on, the buildings themselves, and an annual stipend to cover part of their operating costs. It's like the reverse of taxation.

Actually, yes:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/pacificnw/2001/1125/cover.html

An alert border guard caught a guy trying to get across the border with a bunch of bomb stuff. This case with the finger prints doesn't sound like a case of anybody being "alert" - but for my money, training people to detect and investigate is far better than the ridiculous security theater we usually see - taking off shoes and having jars of plum jam confiscated.

That's why we spend more than twice as much on health care as other industrialized countries and get treatment closer to the bottom of the scale.

First, lets see your citation and references on this please. (Wiki does NOT count, use a REAL source). Here is mine... http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2001977834_cihak13.html The Seattle Times. (waiting for you to read). YEs, thanks, I'd rather NOT wait an average of 17.7 weeks for hospital care. That really sounds like some excellent care there... most of the people are reporting as healthy because the rest have died before they got care! (that was snide remark, btw, not an actual fact).

Because there are so many entrenched cartels in the health care industry. It's why we have the worst cellular service outside of Nigeria and why banks and credit card companies still run Washington.

OK, again, lets see those citations please. Your opinion does not mean anything.

But lets offer you a bone here.. yes, the companies run Washington because they have HUGE influence with the Senators. Why? Well, partially because all Polticians are corrupt Well, yes, sure, maybe a few aren't, but they are far and few between, and typically just Rep's or lower on the totem pole. The Senators are so corrupt it isn't even funny. I'm in Illinois and the last time we had a Senator pay attention to the actual needs of the state, Paul Simon was in office. Obama was (is?) a joke... he spent his whole time running for Messiah and ignoring the State. Durbin has corporations crammed so far us his keister, I don't think he has ever had to wipe his own ass. ..and the other guy, whatever his name is, he was put into office by the guy who tried to sell off Obama's seat. So how do you reverse that? Revoke the 17th Ammendment. Bring Senators power base AWAY from the corporations that fund their campaigns and back to the State Legislatures. Give the States their power back and force the Senators to actually work FOR their States and the State's people, not the corporations. ...but I digress...

New industries might start out competitive but once they get to a certain size, they start bending the rules in their own favor. Using unfair practices to freeze out competition, getting sweetheart legislation pushed through Congress, buying influence.

Reference the repeal of the 17th. It is a HELL of a lot harder to buy an entire State Legislature than it is to buy a single Senator.

You free market preachers are just naive.

And there is our Revolutionary-Speak. When I hear you say that, I get the image in my head of you wearing a Che shirt and smoking dope. If that is not the case, then please don't speak like that... it just makes you sound like an aged 60's Hippie.

The only free markets are also fair markets. And if you think what we have today is a fair market, you need to pass the bong. Government is the only entity that has the ability to groom a competitive marketplace. What we have today is what happens when government stops doing that job for 10 years. The rich get richer and there's no accountability for cheating. Economic collapse follows right after.

...and there is the Bush Slam. See, its not hard to find if you just read it for what it is. CAPITOLISM = BAD, SOCIALISM = GOOD.

Right.. so all those high paying jobs that people

Anyone notice the increase in stories in the mainstream media connecting Craigslist to various crimes - the "Craigslist robber", selling babies on Craigslist, Cragislist hookers, Craigslist attempted murderers, Craigslist scammers, etc, etc.

It seems that every struggling newspaper in the country goes to some effort to tie Craigslist to any local crime. I don't recall any of these papers connecting crimes to their own classified ads. It's almost like these papers have some sort of agenda...

Seattle Police are out of control ... http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009209116_arrest12m.html

Linux and Apple are blips and while they continue to make headway, it's extremely slow and not that large of a threat.

Assuming this is true (has Ballmer ever admitted he/MS feels "threatened" by anyone?!), even $10 million/year is only "a blip" in their $6.6 billion/year research budget

Racism exists pretty much everywhere, in one form or another. Where there are no visible racial differences, there will be imagined ones. Someone farther up the thread remarked favorably upon Japanese culture compared to African-American culture. He probably hadn't read this article or he'd have understood that so-called "racism" and "cultural bias" are ubiquitous whenever two or more humans who aren't identical siblings congregate.

Each individual is responsible for keeping and honoring the best parts of his/her culture, and rejecting the worst parts. It doesn't matter whether you're of Asian or African descent, you're still going to have to deal with some asshats who think they're better than you are.

Let's take the recent estimate of a lost laptop at $50,000. Now let's multiply that by an estimated 2 million hosts "lost" to a botnet discovered already this year. That's $100B and it's only April.

I suppose you could add hardware, software, and 30% of all the processing power on the planet to support bloated antivirus software. And don't forget power. That's a lot of Watts. And that's just the client side - half of those websites you refer too are actually traps for people trying to perform some self-help that actually install more malware.

The numbers are horrid. And it's all unnecessary. Wasteful. Shameful. We can do better than this.

I've had this article on my cube wall for the last 8 years. On mine, the headline reads "Hawking urges engineered humans".

When the construction of I-5 between Portland and Seattle ran through this guy's farm, he wasn't too happy about it.