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"Stop lying. Stop with the Fox talking points."
Association fallacy

"Just stop. We have heard it all before."
  'old news' fallacy

"The evidence, the data says otherwise."
What evidence since you couldn't be bothered to provide any?

Other countries following the US lead with steel tariffs?
2016 election results by county and the Census bureau map of hispanic population?
More countries phasing out ICE vehicles, thus dramatically decreasing their demand and profitability?

"This is the worst kind of decision making by feelz instead of facts and reason."
Projection.

No, the voting machine industry. They're all terrible. It's so bad people are calling for paper ballots--computer science people, not infosec people, because infosec people would look at paper ballots and cringe...oh, wait, no, Bruce Schneier has also fallen for that noise.

Let's be honest here: paper ballots are data packets. You have a distributed network in which a few trusted individuals are in possession of the packets at any time. Start from the sender (polling center), put the data packet on a truck (router) operated by a few trusted individuals (ISP employees) who promise not to clone seals (checksum) and tamper with the data (ballots). It looks like the Internet, but slow.

We need authentication before the packets leave the polling center. With voting, we need universal verification: the ballots must be counted while in view, accounted for, and then signed by a mathematically-derived number we can regenerate by counting exactly-identical ballots. The number must be observed by anyone present--if you want to just wander into the polling center and watch, you are the security control.

For electronic voting machines in particular, we need universal verification that the software image is unchanged from a published image at the moment polling begins. That only lets you know the state of ballots until they're removed from the machine, so the machines need to produce proof of the ballot set before tampering is possible.

A lot of people focus on usability issues, counting time, and miscounting paper ballots. These are all technical; the long view only really involves two issues.

First, direct-recording electronic voting machines are the future. Surprisingly-few people really care about paper ballots, and paper audit trails have been shown manipulable (paper isn't an audit trail anyway: you can print a false audit trail). We're going to have DRE voting machines in the next generation, and it's never going back.

Second, paper ranked ballots are complex and difficult to resolve to real, stable proof. I've been able to alter votes and produce similar statistics for number of times each candidate appeared in each position, pairwise race results (they'll be the same if you rotate vote order, allowing selection of a winning candidate), and a few other outcomes. I haven't been able to make them match simultaneously, and haven't proven you can't. Mathematically, the amount of information increases exponentially with the candidate pool.

In other words: certain ballots are going to need ballot data format and sorting rules plus a strong hash algorithm (SHA-512) and statistics. While modifying the statistics involves tweaking the ballots in valid ways, finding a hash collision involves tweaking data: any collisions could, conceivably, involve inaccurate data. For a given number of ballots and candidates, the number of variations is limited; it's further limited when generating the same statistics.

To carry this out, you need to enter the ballots into a computer.

To validate the ballots, you need to re-enter exactly the same ballots.

There's no hope of integrity guarantees and certified ballots leaving the polling center--not in any way verifiable by anyone but the election judges themselves--without a way to maintain integrity of a computer system unless we use voting rules like First Past The Post Plurality or Instant Runoff Voting, in which case we can hijack the election by nominating or retiring candidates or by gerrymandering the district.

Diebold made ATMs. Then they made voting machines. A future of Diebold-descended voting machines is a nightmare.

And you should be asking "why?" is it rising faster than any other category.

A large part of the 'cost' of education rising so fast is that public schools are being increasing defunded from public sources -- putting the cost of education to the student rather the state or fed. In 1996, the State of Michigan supported on average 85% of the total budget of the largest three research schools -- today they support less than 15%. Similar stories in most other states. The actual cost of schooling somebody at a public school, taking into account all funding sources has been flat or has gone down in most cases. That accounts for the rising cost of health care, energy, etc. that have been rising as well.

Private schools, however, have been increasing the price to match the apparent increase to students in the public sector. Since most private schools's students are eligible for federal loans, there is no incentive to keep the costs down.

https://mediad.publicbroadcast...

You're not special enough to get a free pass.

I guess I'm not a "protected class" with special privileges.

Are you also going to say that transsexual women shouldn't use the women's washroom because that's a "special privilege"? That would also require transsexual mentlike these to use the same bathroom as women and girls. Do you really want to go up to any of these guys and say they're just women who had their boobs cut off? Or that they have to pee in the women's bathroom?

Some of them still have vaginas, which just goes to show that sex is more than what's between the legs.

It's not even a question of "protected class." Go up to any woman and keep addressing her as a man, using male names and pronouns. Or vice versa for any man. Everyone has the right not to be subject to your brand of harassment, whether they're transsexual or not.

you have a gut revulsion to all transsexuals

True enough, as I'm sure most men do when they're not being politically correct. What percentage of men do you think would date or marry a transsexual?

Many men would, many men do. They aren't acting out of political correctness. Plus, you can't always tell that someone's a transsexual. As in the movie "transamerica" where one character said "We walk among you." It's a real hoot to watch men make fools of themselves dissing Caitlyn Jenner to someone they always knew as a woman and didn't know she used to be a man.

There's also the phenomenon of "trans-fans" - ,en who chase after women because they are transsexuals, and that makes them exotic. Plus, no worry about getting her pregnant.

you have a gut revulsion to all transsexuals

True enough, as I'm sure most men do when they're not being politically correct. What percentage of men do you think would date or marry a transsexual?

You also have a fear of castration (many men do, you're not that special), and transsexuals are a problem for you.

Castration is especially repulsive, yes, but guys dressing up as women is also repulsive

You would have been a riot in Shakespearean times, where all roles, including female, were played by male actors. People didn't find it repulsive then, and it was only when the moral majority started their attacks that things changed.

Despite what you want to believe, nobody gets a free pass interfering with another's fundamental constitutional rights.

Like my constitutional rights to free speech? Thanks, I'm glad you're so concerned.

Ah yes, the last refuge of the freetard libertarians. Your right to free speech isn't absolute. Many forms of speech are illegal. For example, start making death threats, even to a third party. Start sexually harassing someone with lewd comments. Start passing child pornography around. False advertising. Try sending threats through the mail. Saying you have a bomb and are going to blow yourself up. Even copyright infringerment isn't protected, though people sure tried.

Now, lets get down to you. If you treat a transsexual at work the same way you have said you would treat Manning, even if it's only limited to not using their legal name, you can be fired for cause. There's plenty of speech that isn't protected by the second amendment, which is one reason why you would be well advised NOT

Even if the telecoms are not counting the public hotspot use against my caps, it could impact the performance of my network.

But mainly, it's the desire not to attract certain elements into my neighborhood who depend on free services. I wish I could find a pic of the hobo sitting in front of his tent in the 'Seattle Jungle' camp pecking away at his Apple laptop. Probably mooching off a local business' unsecured WiFi. It was run on the local news during a report on some recent drug murders there.

In our case, we used to have random folks hanging out on the curb near our house (sometimes late at night playing loud music), then I took a bat to my "xfinitywifi" cable modem/router, and bought a device that did not have wifi capabilities.
I still saw the "xfinitywifi" and people still randomly parked in front of my house.
I told my neighbors who are also annoyed by these interlopers, we all replaced our modems... and now no more jerks in our neighborhood (for the past several months) - and bonus - no rental fee for each of our cable subscriptions.

Even if the telecoms are not counting the public hotspot use against my caps, it could impact the performance of my network.

But mainly, it's the desire not to attract certain elements into my neighborhood who depend on free services. I wish I could find a pic of the hobo sitting in front of his tent in the 'Seattle Jungle' camp pecking away at his Apple laptop. Probably mooching off a local business' unsecured WiFi. It was run on the local news during a report on some recent drug murders there.

... Washington State can offer its consulting services for authentic bridge collapses.

Always happy to share our vast quantity of experiences.

Sounds like nobody wants to live there. Wonder why that is..

Yeah, I wonder... it's so awful here:

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Sorry, but that sounds exactly like a fucking lie.

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wbfo/news.newsmain/article/0/0/1941798/US/Extreme.heat.spreads.across.U.S...breaks.records

Yes, MA does have a seatbelt law. No, the lt gov is not exempt: he received a fine for not wearing a seat belt, as well as for speeding and a "lane violation". (Apparently driving out of your lane and into a big rock without signaling your intentions is a ticketable offense.)

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wamc/news.newsmain/article/0/0/1891053/WAMC.New.England.News/MA.Lieutenant.Governor.Will.Not.Contest.Ticket

Another rare earth, which China has started rationing to the rest of the world ...., as I sit here watching the Chinese president speak from the White House.

Right on. Yes, they really are that lazy and ignorant.
http://action.publicbroadcasting.net/cartalk/posts/list/669811.page Also, you gunk up your catalytic converter while idling which creates back pressure on the exhaust system. Cat converters are not cheap to replace.

BYW the following will be all too common health care headlines Michigan School budget cuts - gee the government never holds schools hostage to raise taxes does it? http://www.wxyz.com/news/story/Governor-Orders-More-School-Funding-Cuts/Ky1-nJOs6EGAfwE2Yx6GMw.cspx In New York State Funding to Schools and health care are being cut - The same thing you want the government t take over are being cut. Hmmm http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wxxi/news.newsmain/article/1/0/1566593/WXXI.Local.Stories/Paterson.Proposes.$3b.in.Budget.Cuts..Including.Mid.Year.School.Aid.Reductions

The largest is the Navajo Reservation of some 16 million acres of land in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.

which you can see in this map(PDF warning).
They have few utilities which is a combination of the extreme size, distances between "settlements", poverty, cultural differences and good old fashioned greed. NPR ran a whole series about life on the reservation and the so-called border towns. Doing business on the reservation The mp3 on the linked page describes how the tribe (that now complains about the lack of connectivity and phone service) essentially blocked the installation of cell phone towers at nearly every turn; how the tribe wants to collect leases on the land of nearly twice what can be paid off the Rez.
TFA complains that 911 and other important services are not available or might not be available but that has almost always been the case. The Universal Service Fee that everyone pays is supposed to pay for running copper and extending these services to places that it doesn't "pay" for the phone companies to run wire to.
On top of that, anyone who wants to operate a business spends five years or more just for approval for a lease to operate on the land - and forget it if you're not Navajo. Anyone at all enterprising has to move off the reservation due to the crab bucket mentality.
Want a FOSS solution to all of this? The terrain is rugged, hills, etc. obstruct line of sight. That's the primary reason for satellite service. How about the OLPC project? How about the tribal government lower its barriers to business? Answer those questions and we can move forward.
---
From the border town of Flagstaff.

Oh wait, it's already happening... http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wbfo/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1307780&sectionID=1

They do sell them in WA state right now too. However, they're actually imported from Canada, Japan or Europe and then modified after market to meet US road standards by third party dealers.

"I guess you'd have to put billboards into the category, though I (unfortunately) don't see legislation against those popping up in a hurry."

Not anymore, at any rate. Vermont's banned them since 1968. They're apparently illegal in three other states as well: Maine, Alaska, and Hawaii.

perhaps this guy can't kick his porn habit on his own and figure's this is the only way he can stop. reminds me of jim west:

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/opb/news.newsmai n?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=851575

I'm not sure if the trend is continuing, but one thing that has been noted in the past several years is that listenership to public radio has been booming. The decline in commercial radio listeners is probably more than 4%, though I couldn't say how much more. When you see that many commercial music stations only have 300 songs in their playlists but run more than 20 minutes of ads each hour (especially during drivetime), it's hard to be surprised that people are looking elsewhere.

Some people have already mentioned "Jack FM" and other similar formats. "Like an iPod on shuffle" they say. Sure, they bump up the playlist to 1200 songs instead of 300, but you're still stuck in the '80s for the most part. They completely do away with DJs for many of these stations, so if there's a new song, you'll never know who sings it. It's not conducive to learning about new music.

I like to hear new music. All the time. Not just one or two new songs dribbled in each week. Most radio companies seem to believe that very few people are interested in hearing new music nearly as much as I am. Maybe that's true, but I can't say for certain. Apparently at least 50 million people think that they aren't getting enough stuff over-the-air (though obviously some folks are listening to talk, or are using the cleaner online stream rather than a fuzzy AM/FM signal).

Here in the Twin Cities, people had been getting fed up with radio. You might remember that the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis even did a "Radio Re-Volt" last year. Sure, there have been a handful of livable or even excellent options in the dozens of stations in the area. The top two cited were usually KFAI and 770 Radio K. Both had problems, though, primarily with weak signals. KFAI adds up to about 250 watts. Radio K is 5 kW, but on AM, and only during the daytime. They both stream online, which mitigates the problem a bit, but you can't trail an Ethernet cable along as you drive in your car.

Minnesota Public Radio launched a new 'eclectic' music service called "The Current" on KCMP 89.3 FM back in January on a big 100 kW transmitter they'd bought a few months earlier for $10 million. Most of my friends listen to it (and even support it), so I think it has a good chance of surviving. No, I don't like all of the songs they play, quality varies from DJ to DJ, the DJs sometimes make mistakes, and CDs sometimes skip. But they actually have DJs, CDs, and even vinyl, and hope to eventually build a library of 50,000 albums. They have a hefty concert calendar and bring musicians in for very-nearly-live performances every day or so. Local music is in frequent rotation, and the DJs have the freedom to go talking about all sorts of random things. Yeah, there are some people who hate it (and The Morning Show is still an oddball ;-)

Online streaming provides a bunch of great options, but it's nice to have something with a local flavor that you can talk to your friends about, and have them know about it and understand. While there are some big notable exceptions, terrestrial radio is meant to be a community affair (well, here in the U.S. where there aren't big national networks). XM can't have that, and it's fairly rare for streaming audio. Admittedly, MPR is a pretty big beast itself and has taken over a

Listen to it live here live on WEOS. http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/weos/ppr/weos.as x

I don't know where you are, but my local NPR station plays some of the most interesting music I've found on radio. And yes, it does seem weird to me to be typing "local NPR"...

Whoa! He's right!@

"Foreign terrorists" is a favorite term of U.S. administration officials, used to describe foreigners who have entered Iraq to oppose the occupation. This Reuters report has one example. The term is also frequently used in White House press briefings in the same context.

Come on, that's how we do it in America, you must assimilate.

You never know though... other state parties have been doing some pretty childish things, so I wouldn't put it past them.

I completely agree with this. They're doing protests elsewhere, why not in California too? I think it's pretty sad that they're resorting to this kind of tactic.

Taliban-run government, bad thing. You can look up Taliban elsewhere for details.

Government holds an admitted supporter of the Taliban, one who tried to enter Afghanistan and take up arms against the US military, for 5 weeks without charges.

I suggest you look up the laws on "material witness". The government can detain someone deemed a material witness (with a warrant signed by a federal judge) if said witness is a flight risk. This guy had already attempted to travel to Afghanistan via China, so yeah, flight risk seems reasonable.

Despite your indignation, Hawash's attorney, Stephen Houze, said, "Hawash is not getting a raw deal.

Stephen Houze: This has been a very fair and even-handed proceeding with the government and we're satisfied with the course of action that we've taken"
(source for quote)

My first pick was Off the Hook, then Off the Wall.

I searched for good free sources of MP3 talk radio content. If NPR wasn't solely Real format, I'd grab All Things Considered and Morning Edition. Ditto This American Life (damn, how I'd love to have this show in MP3 format!).

A decent, locally-produce show that I like is Radio West, a show dealing with issues local to Utah and the West in general. There's a few good recent shows about the Mountain Meadows Massacre, a horrific event in LDS history that Mormon officials rarely acknowledge (and have never formally apologized for). Quite a hot potato in local circles. ;-)

A somewhat less professional, but often entertaining show, is Ghostly Talk. Regardless of your opinion on ghost chasers and the supernatural, it's kinda interesting stuff. My only real gripe with the show is that there's a lot of chatter of the crew amongst themselves before the real meat of the program's main topic is presented.

More MP3 archives of good public radio shows would be most welcome. (I don't suppose there's a good Real Adio --> mp3 converter for Linux?)

I'd go to the site, but Showtime apparently thinks the internet works like 1920's telephone service. The actual episode in question is one of my favourites.

I have that episode (actually, all of them) handy. I'll present some quotes to help you out:

Charles Margulis, Greenpeace GE specialist: "We're concerned that Genetically Engineered food is a disaster waiting to happen."
"Human beings have never before created lifeforms (plants) in the laboratory and released them into the environment and nobody knows what's going to happen in the long-term either in the environment or in our diets."

Penn: "Created lifeforms, disaster waiting to happen, that's Bullshit! These greenpeace dudes want us to believe that GE crops will ruin other crops and harm any person or animal that eats these foods."

Norman Borlaug: "Producing food for 6.2 billion people, adding a population of 80 million more a year is not simple. We had better develop an ever improved science and technology including the new modern technology to produce the food that is needed for today".

Norman Borlaug: "We're 6.6 billion people now. We can only feed 4 billion. I don't see 2 billion volunteers to disappear." (Regarding organic only foods)

Juliano, Raw Food Chef: "A tortilla is made in a dingy, dirty factory by some dude who hates his job, boss, life, and you. And sends that hate into the food, and you eat it and send it to the center of your core being."

Penn: "Even if this nut had some odd fruit that had grown wild somewhere, it was delivered to him on a truck, it was kept fresh through refrigeration, he washed it in his sink alongside his lettuce tortilla, where did that water come from? He cut it with a knife and cleaned it up with cloth or paper towel. There is no food or water without technology. NONE. Just SHUT THE FUCK UP AND GET A JOB!"

Charles Margulis: "There is no Government requirement that genetically engineered foods be tested in the United States. There's not a single government agency, neither the FDA, USDA, EPA; None of them require genetically engineered foods to be tested for human health effects."

Terry Lomax, professor of botany and plant pathology at Oregon State University: "There are no animal genes in plant crops"

Terry Lomax: "These genetically engineered crops are actually the most highly tested crops that we've ever had. They're regulated by the EPA, the USDA, and the FDA. The EPA regulates them if there's a pesticide involved; The USDA [on] where they're grown and how it will affect the environment, and the FDA for food safety. They go through millions of dollars of testing and many years to be able to be approved as a commercial crop."

Alex Avery, studying global food issues at the Hudson Institute: "The president of Zambia was told by Greenpeace and friends of the earth that the food was poisonous."

Norman Borlaug: "These are utopian people that live on cloud 9 and come into the third world and cause all kinds of confusion and negative impacts on the developing countries"

Penn: "Unless you and yours are starving you need TO SHUT THE FUCK UP".

BTW: Most of the work Norman Borlaug did, for which he was awarded a nobel prize, was done before 1970 (1944, to be accurate). And he's still continuing it, thank God. Oh, and this was the only time Penn got pissed off enough to tell people to shut the fuck up. And I can see why.

Why not donate to help starving people worldwide?