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Why is a company capable of such awesome technical inginuity (Amazon Web Services) getting hung up on something so utterly ridiculous?

Like Wal*Mart, Amazon is responsible for destroying a large part of many cities independent retailers because although many people talk a strong talk about supporting a healthy local economy by frequenting small businesses, most of these same people will jump to save $2 on a $30 purchase by buying through these faceless uncaring mega corporations.

So really, while we rile against the practices of companies like Amazon and Wal*Mart, we rarely actually put our money where our mouths are.

When you shop at book sellers like Powell's World of Books, you may pay a little bit more, but you're supporting a healthy business model that is centered around both the employee and customer, instead of lining Jeff Bezo's pocket even more.

Saunders' second story in In Persuasion Nation does a good job imagining what New York will be like when advertisers fully have their way with the city.

For those who have never been in Portland, Oregon, we should explain that people are a little different here.

Question: Why do hippies move to Portland? Answer: Because there are no jobs.

The world's smallest park is here, and the world's largest bookstore.

The spirit of Douglas Adams lives on in the body of Linus Torvalds, who lives in Portland, creating artistic chaos for commercial operating systems. Douglas Adams loved technical gizmos. "Douglas was a keen technologist, writing about such inventions as e-mail and Usenet before they became widely popular, or even widely known." Linus Torvalds makes technical gizmos happen.

Yes, the police system creates fear. But does fear deter crime? The answer is no. This has been proven by countless studies over the years, many of which have focused on capital punishment and its deterrent effect (it has none - see, for example, this).

So your most of your argument is specious.

The part of your argument that is incontestable is the part where you say "[prison] takes [criminals] off the streets." That, in fact, does lower the crime rate, although there are much more sensible approaches to lowering the crime rate (for example, de-criminalizing drug use (see this)).

The fact that Indiana didn't catch the woman for 35 years implies to me that they probably didn't try very hard -- hell, she didn't even move out of state. I'll bet there's a subtext to the story, or circumstances that we don't know about, that convinced the cops that she posed zero threat to society and wasn't worth expending the resources to track down. That judgment, if it was made, turned out to be true.

Not if you want a used copy of Chung's Computational Fluid Dynamics, for instance. Their price (new) is as high as the local college bookstore! Compare used at Amazon, 71.99, I got the book in under a week and saved $50+ off the bookstore price.

I can't say I've had Amazon spam problems - but then again I do have a good spam filter so I might not ever see it.

I hate myself for it, but I've kept using Amazon because, well, darn it, they're convenient and inexpensive and efficient.

There are lots of alternatives to Amazon, which is the Wal-Mart of the book sales industry. For example Powell's Books.

Not so secure when the company is sued for stealing source code. He took credit (with his copywright notice) for a very old joke. A blatent copy-and-paste. One has to wonder how much of that he does on the job.

Ha ha, joke's on you, you dick- that "old joke" was written by me five years ago as part of a larger post and I was not at work- in fact it was way after hours and I was about to go home. I just started with the base concrete implementation and this is what it looked like after a few minutes of stuffing patterns into it- Singleton, Factory, and Strategy. I keep thinking one of these days I'll release a 2.0 version with Proxy and Bridge. Since I was the original author I retain the right to paste it wherever I want and to attach any license agreement I feel like attaching.

This has become the most famous code I've ever written which is the sort of thing that makes you reflect on your career. So far it has netted me about 20-30 karma points over the years (lord knows how much karma was gotten from pirated copies). I found it being examined in some software engineering papers and it even made its way into one of the patterns books (as an example of "Patterns Happy" code). When I found out about that, I made the guy send me a free copy and acknowledge me in print so I can maybe net some jobs unnecessarily screwing up simple code with GoF patterns which always pays well. Now that I released it under the terms of the Apache license he might come back for his book.

Re: global warming, book review for ya: Under a Green Sky

Maybe the surgeon general read this book, Under a Green Sky. Or perhaps he just likes to read the news, for example: Global warming risk 'much higher', Why the Sun seems to be 'dimming'. And he decided to correct the obviously erroneous dumb fucks.

The extinction events you describe are not controllable by humans. Hence i won't overly dwell on them much. The atmospheric level of CO2 IS to a significant degree controllable by humans. I don't think you read the link i gave which points to a coming MASS extinction if we do not change our ways: Under a Green Sky

Actually i don't think many environmentalists would have a problem with ocean based windmills or wave energy stations. It's much more important to reduce CO2 emissions(Under a Green Sky) so we don't have another mass extinction event. Are far as the ocean floor is concerned they are only using tethers, which has to be better than those deep sea trawlers that drag nets along the ocean floor.

But Al Gore's "Assault On Reason" explores this in the first chapter. The rest of his book is, of course, a political piece on the Bush administration. But, to be fair, he doesn't give them any criticism they don't deserve.

Stop imagining conspiracies of collusion between cutthroat competitors.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2002-09-30 -cd-settlement_x.htm
http://www.engadget.com/2007/03/21/sony-others-nam ed-in-video-tape-price-fixing-scheme/
http://news.com.com/Samsung+to+pay+300+million+for +price+fixing/2100-1004_3-5894862.html
http://illinoisissuesblog.blogspot.com/2007/03/pri ce-fixing.html
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/ch ronicle/archive/2002/05/10/MN24643.DTL
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2002/May-08 -Wed-2002/business/18699104.html
http://www.powells.com/biblio?PID=28734&cgi=produc t&isbn=0767903277

What's more, you don't have to spend long in today's business culture before it becomes *obvious* that there's enough of a critical mass of actors who believe in getting ahead by amassing control over channels and perception (rather than producing/adding value) that the emergence of price-fixing behavior is practically inevitable.

I don't know what you're calling 'the standard narrative about punk', but I seem to recall that Azerrad's "Our Band Could Be Your Life" gave due props to the California scene.

Tom, thanks for reminding me of the cranks and loons that one meets on the Internet.

Let's see here. You quote Thornley paraphrasing Lao Tzu - a philosopher whose works have endured for thousands of years, an man whose work is one of the great influences on Chinese culture - and then accuse me of being a crank because I used a completely different quote from Thornley.

Hmm. Sorry, but that's one of the greatest non-sequitors I've seen on line in at least the past year, and would seem to be indiciative of great confusion. Let me see if I can help.

If you want to dismiss Lao Tzu as a crank, you at least owe it to him and to millions of people influenced by Taoism to understand it enough to recognize it when you see it. I highly recommend Ursula K. Le Guin's interpretation of the Tao Te Ching and Raymond Smullyans' book The Tao is Silent . (Those aren't affiliate links or anything, by the way.)

Thornley may have been a crank on some subjects, a medium to heavy conspiracy theorist, but given that he got caught up in the weirdness vortex of the JFK assassination I think he deserves a little slack on that. His concept of Zenarchy is an inspiring application of Taoism and Zen concepts to politics, showing the connection with libertarian socialism (a.k.a. anarchy).

The fact that I may quote Thornley on some topic, because I like the way he explains something - or that I might similarly quote Lao Tzu, the Shakyamuni Buddha, Thomas Jefferson, Emperor Norton, Hunter S. Thompson, or whoever - does not mean I agree with the quotee on everything. That one may quote a crank, is non-informative on one's own crank-ness or lack thereof.

HTH. HAND.

Tom, thanks for reminding me of the cranks and loons that one meets on the Internet.

Let's see here. You quote Thornley paraphrasing Lao Tzu - a philosopher whose works have endured for thousands of years, an man whose work is one of the great influences on Chinese culture - and then accuse me of being a crank because I used a completely different quote from Thornley.

Hmm. Sorry, but that's one of the greatest non-sequitors I've seen on line in at least the past year, and would seem to be indiciative of great confusion. Let me see if I can help.

If you want to dismiss Lao Tzu as a crank, you at least owe it to him and to millions of people influenced by Taoism to understand it enough to recognize it when you see it. I highly recommend Ursula K. Le Guin's interpretation of the Tao Te Ching and Raymond Smullyans' book The Tao is Silent . (Those aren't affiliate links or anything, by the way.)

Thornley may have been a crank on some subjects, a medium to heavy conspiracy theorist, but given that he got caught up in the weirdness vortex of the JFK assassination I think he deserves a little slack on that. His concept of Zenarchy is an inspiring application of Taoism and Zen concepts to politics, showing the connection with libertarian socialism (a.k.a. anarchy).

The fact that I may quote Thornley on some topic, because I like the way he explains something - or that I might similarly quote Lao Tzu, the Shakyamuni Buddha, Thomas Jefferson, Emperor Norton, Hunter S. Thompson, or whoever - does not mean I agree with the quotee on everything. That one may quote a crank, is non-informative on one's own crank-ness or lack thereof.

HTH. HAND.

And if you haven't read Epictetus' Manual, you should. It's a short, intriguing read. Try Lebell's plain English version. (Epictetus was a Stoic philosopher.) http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-0062511114-0

Remember, the best way to start living invisible is to shop through a website that sued the world to save your personal information so you don't have to type your shipping information every time. This is much more secure and less trackable than getting on the TriMet 20 to West 10th and Burnside, or Portland Screechcar to 10th and Couch or 11th and Burnside and shopping at Powell's Books, paying cash for the entire trip.

Heck, Google Transit makes planning the trip easy by giving you transit *and* driving directions, bus fare *and* the cost of gas, and when and where to catch the appropriate transit routes...

...That is all the WTO and GATT do. That is it. End of story.

In fact, what you're talking about is a totally different thing. I don't even know what to call it. Foreign investment? Political manipulation? Wealth imbalance? In any case, it is a separate problem that has no place in a rational discussion about free trade.

This "dumbarse" with a blog has been writing professionally, full-time, about the Mac for over ten years. I sat a few cubicles away from him at MacWEEK when he was a news reporter and I was a reviews editor, waaay back in 1996. He went on to his current job at Wired (where he's maintained the Apple beat) and has written two excellent books about Apple.

So, umm, no.

Very true. However I too used a Mac originally. It was my first computer, the first one I owned. I played with Commodore 64s, etc. when I was younger. But when I got to college Apple was the defacto standard. I bought myself a Macintosh Performa for like $1500 and on that machine not only learned computers (my high school didn't have the best technology programm back from 89-93), but I eventually taught myself to program. I walked down to Powell's Technical in Portland, Or. and I picked up "Learn C on the Macintosh" by Dave Mark. Great book for me at the time and a great introduction. It was very easy, very painfree and I put my toe in the water, knowing that I didn't have to worry because the Mac *just worked*.

13 years later this is what I do for a living. So no matter how bad the Mac was back then, for many, including myself, it was a jump start into the world of computing and programming in large part because it just did its job and was easy to use. It was a good place to start. I now run Linux at home and have no interest in Macs any longer. But even without multi-tasking or a robust operating system, the Macintosh did its job for the time.

Because you can actually test for telepathy.

You know I can think of only one other writer to beat Heinlein in the totally weirded out stakes that being Philip K. Dick. Don't take my word for it, just sit down to the PKD reader in one sitting. The Turning Wheel set in a post-apocalyptic future is uncannily prescient where the 'Caucs` are at the bottom of the social pile and everyone gives praise to the church of Elron (clearness be upon him) another lunatic .. er visionary of the SF world. Who knows PKD might have made a fine mainstream writer if he only laid off the amphetamines.

I have to recommend a good under $20.us book to go with it.

http://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=0071359532

There you go, blaming your tools...

There are environments that have had great success implementing UML in their design process. My favorite example is from Nokia:

http://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=0521645301

I had trouble wrapping my head around UML until I read Jaaksi's books (there's more than one), and I've been using Rational Rose since 1996. I never found or developed a clear system for making it work until I read his books.

A book that clearly describes the case for code generation (and the limits) is this one:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1930110979/104-33 75871-4590326?v=glance&n=283155

The author has apparently developed a network for the support of gode generation, and has some useful tools.

Now, what the world REALLY needs, is a method of making the UML tools in VISIO do what they are supposed to do...(Some tools ARE truly deficient!)

Mike

Nothing to see there. Moving right along...

From TFA:

Prof Milton's team calculated that when certain objects are placed next to superlenses, the light bouncing off them is essentially erased by light reflecting off the superlens, making the object invisible.

Sounds an awful lot like the technology speculated about in Dean Ing's Ransom of Black Stealth One about ten years ago.

Cal I

you don't have to think about it anymore. Make it a function, use it a million times, forget the math.

The CIA apparently helped overthrow the democratic government and install a dictator (I don't know that he was a *bad* dictator per se

Are you fucking insane?

Once you accept the fact that the CIA overthrew a legitimate democratic government, then you might considering educating yourself on the consequences of US involvement in Iran before spouting off.

I feel America needs to give the middle east an apology for so much meddling, and get the hell out of their business.

Stop trying to co-opt an old message people long since gave up trying to argue effectively.

Of course, I may be completely wrong.

You are.

This is but ONE issue. And there are many. The plutocratic empire will not survive forever, PNAC or not.

I'm not gonna claim to be all knowledgeable on the subject as I just heard about this a few months ago on Active Voice Radio(scroll about 2/3 down and there is an audio clip of the interview..VERY enlightening), the author's site is: James Loewen Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism. Anyway, all that "the North was against slavery and racism" bit is a huge crock o' crap; geographic location had little-to-nothing to do with an individual's attitudes on the subject.

When legal teams, trust funds and financial institutions are involved, you can't exactly refer to the 1040EZ form. Check out Perfectly Legal.

Who needs Amazon or BN? Go Powell's ...

http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=1-0471 752738-0

I said: "One major university Physics department .PLUS. 4 years intensive research budget .SHOULD.EQUAL. success."

You said: "Completely illogical. It took dozens of universities and several decades to produce fission power, and even more universities and time still haven't produced hot fusion. What on Earth makes you think that four years and a tiny budget is going to produce a final product from physics that weren't even understood before?"

Firstly, in this age of electronic collaboration, one large uni dept can do the work of many from the 1940s. You should have thought that one through a bit more, Rei, since it was obvious after a microsecond or so.

Secondly, I should have defined "success", so that's my fault. "Success" is a positive indication of fusion that takes the next step. Cold- and sono-fusion are still being ARGUED and DEBATED on basic levels ("does it exist?", etc.), which makes a laughingstock of all the academics involved. What's to argue about if you had bothered to (1) get adequate funding for the project, and (2) had done your experiments correctly (i.e. without errors, like Pons and F. were famous for)?

So my view point of scientists + time + funding = success is entirely correct. What we have now is media + scientists + halfassedfunding = travesty. So of course we're not seeing any successes ... just a lot of people squawking. Note well that this is the major problem with Western Civilization today; there's a whole lot of talk, but very few people completing work towards goals. In effect, since too many academics are in a welfare system, they have little motivation to complete work towards defined goals. Literally, results are bad since that would mean projects (hence funding) would end.

I said: "Look, tech that can be figuratively-speaking "made in a garage" can ONLY produce results from a few garages across America and Europe."

You said: "Your garage has deuterated acetone and a Pu-Be neutron source? Wow, please invite me over some time!!!!"

Now you're just being an ass. We had an American kid refine radioactives from smoke detectors in his yard shed and basement, in his attempts to make a power-producing reactor. Things like rare chemicals and neutron sources can be obtained and installed in a garage. Stop being silly, Rei. America's inventors have done marvellous things in (figurative) garages ... if they are allowed access to wealth and materials. They've also done the things that needed to be done when large organizations refused to do them. Any computer Apple user should be thankful for that, although the microcomputer industry cannot entirely claim fatherhood from Jobs' and Wozniak's garage antics.

I said: "Uni labs should have cranked a few dozen of these solutions out over a decade ago."

You said: "No, they most certainly shouldn't have. [details]"

Rei, listen to me verrrrrry carefully. Scientists are supposed to explore the limits of knowledge based upon their superb education and rationality, not hand us a list of arbitrary goddamn excuses about endless technical details that are allegedly causing them to not produce results. Your list sounds like the equally-arbitrary list of reasons the US invaded and occupied Iraq. Each point applies to the failure to get results purely on faith. We may as well have them tell us the "framistat was decalibrated".

Scientists are supposed to be smart and educated. "Smart and educated" means you have a deep understanding of things. One thing that should be understandable is WHAT you're experimenting for, and past that point HOW you'll overcome restrictions to make the NEXT discovery. But that's NOT what's happening with cold- and sono-fusion experiments. Either these so-called scientists are playing

Yeah, the Phil.exp. my first thought too. As to comment, what about the strong and weak forces? Electromagnetism too-timebound to account for temporal instantation visit to home base. Perhaps this is where EPR action really is.

Read the books (#3 and #4),, don't just see the movies.

(Look down at the bottom of the page as well for the Commander X and Charles Berlitz books -- OP.)

Yeah, really. They could have maybe gotten someone like Paul Jenkins, who'd actually written the Hulk comic before, to work on the game with them. And maybe even base the game off of one of his comic book storylines. And they could have even gone the extra mile and done a comic book miniseries based on the game. Oh, wait -- they already did.

Granted, Jenkins was hardly the best writer the Hulk had ever seen, and the translation of the story to the game wasn't the best, either -- but the game itself was extremely solid and enjoyable, and immensely replayable.

The following books show some of the history of the U.S. government's secret agencies, and help explain much of the underlying reasons for U.S. government violence in the Middle East. Often the secret agencies have acted for special interests and against the good of the people. For example, the CIA overthrew the democratically elected president, President Mossadegh, because he wanted his country to receive more of the profit from oil pumped from his country. The U.S. government's political interference eventually resulted in a violent revolution in Iran, and a determination by Iran to strike back.

1. Unholy Wars: Afghanistan, America, and international terrorism by John K. Cooley, 2000, Third edition, Pluto Press, London, England and Sterling, Virginia, USA. Reviews: Powell's Barnes & Noble Amazon

   Osama bin Laden is "the personification of blowback". You can read more about how the CIA created a political climate very supportive of Osama and his ideas in an article by Jane's, a very well-respected publication devoted to military issues. The article was published 3 days after the second World Trade Center bombings, on September 14, 2004: Why? An attempt to explain the unexplainable.

   The CIA brought Arabs to the U.S. and trained them in terrorism. The rules by which al Qaeda operate seem to come from the CIA training.

2. Blowback: The costs and consequences of American empire by Chalmers Johnson, 2000, Metropolitan Books, New York, New York, USA. Also, there was a new edition in 2003 with a new introduction. Reviews: Powell's

The following books show some of the history of the U.S. government's secret agencies, and help explain much of the underlying reasons for U.S. government violence in the Middle East. Often the secret agencies have acted for special interests and against the good of the people. For example, the CIA overthrew the democratically elected president, President Mossadegh, because he wanted his country to receive more of the profit from oil pumped from his country. The U.S. government's political interference eventually resulted in a violent revolution in Iran, and a determination by Iran to strike back.

1. Unholy Wars: Afghanistan, America, and international terrorism by John K. Cooley, 2000, Third edition, Pluto Press, London, England and Sterling, Virginia, USA. Reviews: Powell's Barnes & Noble Amazon

   Osama bin Laden is "the personification of blowback". You can read more about how the CIA created a political climate very supportive of Osama and his ideas in an article by Jane's, a very well-respected publication devoted to military issues. The article was published 3 days after the second World Trade Center bombings, on September 14, 2004: Why? An attempt to explain the unexplainable.

   The CIA brought Arabs to the U.S. and trained them in terrorism. The rules by which al Qaeda operate seem to come from the CIA training.

2. Blowback: The costs and consequences of American empire by Chalmers Johnson, 2000, Metropolitan Books, New York, New York, USA. Also, there was a new edition in 2003 with a new introduction. Reviews: Powell's

totally... i was wandering in my favorite geek bookstore yesterday... it's weird to look at the shelves, at the rows and rows of thick, expensive books, and think... "i've had no trouble with the online help for that one, and that one, and that one..."

people will spend money on just about anything... but, in fairness, it can be nice to have a guide that you can flip through some times... i don't like online doucmentation for everything but it has its place... a lot of these books though seem a bit much

The assertion that we have "hardwired functions in brain" for "spoken discourse" is certainly rather bold

That language (and most of our higher brain functions) could have developed in the past two hundred thousand years is an assertion that has become rather mainstream. The only people that continue to deny it the "it's all nurture" people that prefer to view the brain as a "tabula rasa" with only cultural influences generating all of the behavioral complexity of a modern person. The fear of genetic determinism and the revival of eugenics seem to be preventing this type of person from accepting anything other than nurture as an explanation for anything like language... but what if the similarities between individuals of different races are much larger than the genetic differences between those same races?

The idea that kids are taught language by adults is laughable once you look at some of the data. Two and three year old children are so much better at learning language than adults it's scary (orders of magnitude better). Kids learn language from adults, but they learn it despite baby-talk and other things many western parents do, not because of it. In many other cultures, kids start to talk at exactly the same time as in the U.S. without any explicit assistance from their parents. The parents are talking around the kids all the time, and one day, the kid starts participating.

Some reading on the subject (same books from Powell's). I'd like to reassure you, the books I reccommend are quite accessable, even if you are not into evolutionary psychology, cognitive development, or linguistics. Also pretty cheap if you buy used paperbacks...

Regards,
Ross

The assertion that we have "hardwired functions in brain" for "spoken discourse" is certainly rather bold

That language (and most of our higher brain functions) could have developed in the past two hundred thousand years is an assertion that has become rather mainstream. The only people that continue to deny it the "it's all nurture" people that prefer to view the brain as a "tabula rasa" with only cultural influences generating all of the behavioral complexity of a modern person. The fear of genetic determinism and the revival of eugenics seem to be preventing this type of person from accepting anything other than nurture as an explanation for anything like language... but what if the similarities between individuals of different races are much larger than the genetic differences between those same races?

The idea that kids are taught language by adults is laughable once you look at some of the data. Two and three year old children are so much better at learning language than adults it's scary (orders of magnitude better). Kids learn language from adults, but they learn it despite baby-talk and other things many western parents do, not because of it. In many other cultures, kids start to talk at exactly the same time as in the U.S. without any explicit assistance from their parents. The parents are talking around the kids all the time, and one day, the kid starts participating.

Some reading on the subject (same books from Powell's). I'd like to reassure you, the books I reccommend are quite accessable, even if you are not into evolutionary psychology, cognitive development, or linguistics. Also pretty cheap if you buy used paperbacks...

Regards,
Ross

I haven't ordered from Amazon in years, and I actively discourage my friends and family from using them.

Between Bezos' vehement anti-union stance and the patent nonsense, combined with the fact that a very cool local bookstore is closing at the end of the month, I say: fsck 'em.

re: the anti-union stance. Let's see: Bezos' claim is that "Amazon.com is the 'new' economy and the old rules don't apply." To which I say: BULLSHIT. What's "new economy" about selling boxes of books? They're doing the exact same thing as Sears-Roebuck did at the turn of the last century. The only difference is in the catalog presentation and the ordering. There are still people in huge warehouses handling orders and ensuring shipments go out.

Oh, yeah, the diff between the old Sears and Amazon: good luck getting a human being at Amazon to deal with the inevitable order fuckups.

I use Powell's when ordering online.

I concur, biodiesel is great. It is now cheaper than petroleum diesel in some parts of Seattle, Washington, USA.

Algae cultivation looks especially promising as a source of fuel oil (biodiesel is made from oil). According to From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank, algal harvesting could potentially yield 4 to 40 times more oil than canola/rapeseed farming per acre.

If algae was cultivated using 1/60th of the currently fallow cropland, tens of billions of litres of oil could be produced, at a price of about $1.65 per gallon!

http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/imageDB.cgi?isbn=03 16106917

Oddly enough, professionals are the least likely labor class to do that.

See, for instance, a review of Jung Chang's new bio of Mao for some better examples. I thought this was a telling example: "Mao's doctor Li Zhisui tells of sitting next to Mao at a performance in Shanghai when a child acrobat slipped and crashed to the floor. The audience gasped. Mao, alone, laughed."

There have been a number of comments about aboriginal Americans overhunting megafauna on the North American Continent and I shall assume that those interested in re-introducing these animals to the wilds in North American preserves would not also want to re-introduce hunting-to-extinction.

But as Tim Flannery points out in his book The Eternal Frontier: An Ecological History of North America and Its Peoples the North American continent is unique in its mountains are oriented largely north-south, which creates extremes of temperatures in the interior, while most other continents have east-west oriented mountains, which prevent the same extremes.

As someone who grew up in Kansas with 110 degree heat in the summer and -20 degree cold in the winter, I wonder if those who wish to re-introduce these animals into America also have plans to construct warmed and cooled shelters.

The vague reference to a Department of Transportation study about the energy-saving benefits of DST can be thrown out at worst, or simply ignored at best.

I just finished reading Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving about a month before this latest change to the clock settings came around.

Read that, then come back. DST *is* madness, and really was only brought about by New York business magnates who wanted more entertainment hours in the evening. Bunko about saving energy.

Ask your parents (if they're old enough) what it was like to grow up in a century where most of the country couldn't agree on what time it was. This book certainly made me give thanks that at least most of the country found a way to agree (save for Indian and Arizona).

And not a single tourist attraction.

What about Powell's?

There are so many fundamental problems when equating aborting a pregnancy and the death penalty the mere idea of linking them is pointless. Especially using the innocent vs. guilty argument. It's should be no secret that 'innocent' men have been executed by the U.S. Prison Industrial Complex (see : Larry Griffin, among others). I also wonder how many have slipped through the cracks and failed to be exhonerated (119 have been found not guilty after being sentanced to death in the last 30 years alone). Considering it's generally poor folk who are placed on death row, what kind of mess would we uncover if each of those people could afford a high-class lawyer? I'm not implying that every individual on death row didn't commit the crimes they were convicted of, but the system is flawed so deeply, I do not see, in good conscious, how anyone can support putting another human being on death row. What burns me up the most is the constant use of religion to justify killing a criminal. I'm no Christian, but having been raised in a very conservative Christin belief system, it's a no-brainer to me. The cut and dry reality is that being a christian means living a life modelled after Jesus. Living as a servent and finding mercy and forgiveness for the worst of the worst. I have a hard time with the idea that Jesus would sanction a state-run execution, for whatever reason. Just can't picture him standing next to Jeb Bush and saying (this was a Jeb quote) "What I hope is that we become more like Texas. Bring in the witnesses, put them on a gurney, and let's rock and roll." I use this as an example seeing as so many folks on the right love being able to use the Bible to justify their actions. Maybe check out some alternatives to killing other humans : Religion and the Death Penalty: A Call for Reckoning
The Biblical Truth about America's Death Penalty

"If anyone can give actual provable examples of the US government abridging Constitutionally protected free speech, I'd love to hear it."

Where are you from? Disneyland?

Well, there is this:

On June 11, a federal jury returned a stunning verdict in favor of Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney in their landmark civil rights lawsuit against four FBI agents and three Oakland Police officers.

The jury clearly found that six of the seven FBI and OPD defendants framed Judi and Darryl in an effort to crush Earth First! and chill participation in Redwood Summer.That was evident in the fact that 80% of the $4.4 million total damage award was for violation of their First Amendment rights to speak out and organize politically in defense of the forests.

So that's an example that's been proved in Federal Court. But it's just one of many.

A good book on the subject is The Cointelpro Papers by Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall. It consists of internal FBI documents that were obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (which since then has had so many restrictions placed upon it may not be possible to obtain similar documents today) and commentary on them. It details years upon years of the FBI investigating, following, burgling the residences of, attempting to get people fired from their jobs, framing for crimes they did not commit . . . all for *dissenting* and organizing in a lawful manner for political and social change.

Wake up, mama's boy.

Yup, it sure is. Trivial statistics aside (100 flights is a pretty darn good sample), hasn't everyone here read What Do You Care What Other People Think?: Further Adventures of a Curious Character ? Not as much fun as Surely You're Joking..., but a damn good book.

Feyman "escapes" from his minders, makes some semi-unauthorized visits with NASA/contractor engineers, and comes up a guess of about a 1-in-50 chance of a loss-of-vehicle failure on any given mission.

I mean, we all know that Feynman's guesses are/were far better than most folks' calculations, but I was sure hoping he was wrong. He wasn't.

BTW, Feynman himself seemed to be most concerned about the SSME... I'm sure it amuses shuttle hands-on operations folks (in a grim, dark sort of way) when the general population and NASA management go on-and-on-and-on about ET icefall. They *know* that there are a thousand other failure modes, just as likely.

That said, I'd volunteer to fly in a nanosecond, even though I know I'd be one of the people that spends most of the mission barfing!

-Jay-