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IMEI blacklists are common in many countries, including the UK. When a device is stolen the IMEI number is put on the list and carriers reject the device and (potentially) notify investigators.

It's not the IMEI blacklists that I'm worried about. See, if we already have the technology to disconnect devices from the networks, and we have encryption available on the devices, so we really don't need this new "remote kill switch" anti-feature. Folks worried about losing data can use encryption if they want to protect their data, and the remote kill switch doesn't prevent theft because Faraday Cages exist, and black-market thieves will figure out a way to zilch the chip's radio or NoOP the part of baseband/firmware blob that activates the kill switch, etc.

What I'm worried about is getting a "device bricking" standard for all devices so that all they have to do is flip from blacklist to whitelist, and presto they'll only function if they ping corporate/government towers every so often and authenticate with an approved citizen's ID code. Can you say Forced Obsolescence? Intel demonstrated their capability for PCs, and cars now have black boxes standard. The Pentagon has plans to push things like this through for anti-activism purposes.

Here's how you know it's a government job: This non-feature isn't being implemented by customer demand. This isn't something that these folks started offering then got popular and now they're standardizing on, nope. It's something they're making standard whether you want it or not. That's a huge red flag. Isn't this a fucking capitalist country? No, it really isn't. This is anti-consumer collusion of the highest degree. The US Is a plutocracy. Just like Noam Chomsky has been saying for decades. If the USA was a capitalist country then we would allow the market to decide if end users actually want this non-feature whereby the government or your carrier can not just cut off the cell-tower, but brick the devices, cars, computers, etc. to prevent them from being used anywhere. Late on a payment? Oh, they don't just cut off your service, you won't have a device or car to drive to work. Say something "anti-American"? Well, your cell will die on the road and so will your car, then you'll just be black-hooded out of service too. Do consumers really want this? Of course the answer is no. Thus this will be legislated into place "for your own good". Just like censorship and wholesale warrant-less wiretap spying is, and for the same reason as always.

The Stasi would have creamed their pants for some shit like this on machines and typewriters. What soldier would sign up to fight for a country that's doing this shit? If not for uniforms, you wouldn't know which side to fight against: Given only a description of the country's behaviors you'd find us indistinguishable from our supposed worst enemies. If you don't think that's a valid comparison because of some moral high-ground, then you don't know about the Native American genocide or the US eugenics programs. What a sad time to be an American.

Does it matter whether you do not have a democracy or whether you do not have a republic? The point is that you have a plutocracy at your hands, and you're discussing semantic bullshit.

To him, it's not a matter of semantics. Democracies are evil because they use the string that maps almost 1:1 onto a political brand name that he doesn't like. Republics are wonderful because the string that describes that form of government maps almost 1:1 onto a political brand that he does like.

Although the quote is technically correct (the best kind of correct!), because of the political party preference of the person who made up the quote, he has been trained to prefer the character string "Republican" over the character string "Democrat" regardless of the policies associated with the two political parties that have adopted those two character strings as brand names.

Perfect example of Newspeak. Control the language used to describe political expression, and you control the range of political opinions he is capable of expressing. Here, we start with a guy who prefers the (R) brand, convince him that the string "democracy" means something unamerican, and we have his vote for life. We've managed to so associate the "d-word" with un-americanness that the R-branded folks are now siding with communist China on labor laws and with Vladimir Putin on everything from marriage to the invasion of the Ukraine and the reconstitution of the USSR.

It's brilliant. It's evil. It's dangerous. And it's working.

You've got serious problems there if a law abiding citizen cannot talk to the cops.

Welcome to Amerikka. Here's some links from my history.

http://photographyisnotacrime.com/2013/09/06/illinois-cops-threaten-confiscate-mans-camera-recording/
http://filmingcops.com/parents-outraged-after-cop-asks-their-12-yr-old-child-for-sexual-photos/
http://abcnews.go.com/US/court-oks-barring-high-iqs-cops/story?id=95836
http://www.blackyouthproject.com/2014/01/cops-beat-deaf-man-for-7-minutes-because-he-didnt-respond-to-them/
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/11/28/yale-professor-found-dead-in-his-jail-cell-hours-after-fighting-with-police/
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/newlywed-kansas-city-firefighter-shot-killed-duty-police-officer-v21721897
http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/frequently-harassed-teen-secretly-records-video-of-police-stop-and-frisk/news/2013/12/19/80517

Sadly, I couldn't find the most applicable one, where some people who reported a crime and then hung around to see what happened ended up harassed for obstructing justice.

Democrats don't like technological solutions

Sure about that?

And now folks you see why Lamar Smith wants to hobble the EPA.

Meanwhile in North Carolina you have 30 year Duke Energy vetran Governor Pat McCrory who has been using the power of the govt in NC to sheild Duke Energy from lawsuits as a result of massive pollution. Spilling things like arsenic, lead, mercury and other things into NC waterways. In every single lawsuit the McCrory administration intervened and shut the lawsuits down. Now you have the lastest massive spill

Was covered on Rachel Maddow's show last night (Tuesday, 2/11/14, A disastrous toxic spill broke NC interference for governor’s former firm) and was shocking.

officials at the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) invoked a provision in the federal Clean Water Act allowing them to step in as plaintiffs against Duke Energy when Duke was being sued by environmental activists over the toxic coal ash ponds at its facilities.

In N.C. for state residents (citizens) to sue, they have to give a 60 days written notice.

• ~ On day 58 of the 60 day notice, for the first spill, the DENR, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, stepped in and said we will handle it.
• ~ The group discovered a second Duke Energy plant was polluting and gave their 60 day notice that they intended to sue, on day 60 the DENR stepped in and said we will handle it.
• ~ The same NC Citizens group discovered a 3rd Duke site polluting and put in their 60 day notice to sue, you guessed it, on day 60 the DENR stepped in and said we will handle it (basically voiding the lawsuit).
• ~ All three sites continue to pollute the ground water (NC. citizen's drinking water) today with no attempts to clean anything up.
• ~ They Duke Energy were fined less than $100,000.00. I wonder how much the clean up will be and as with the oil companies if they will be paid twice. Usually these companies have another shell company to do the clean up and hide the extent of the damage. For the oil companies in the gulf research 'corexit', 'oil' and 'dispersants', you will see the similarity.

The state reached settlements worth a collective $99,000 for those incidents. (Duke Energy)

You see the new head of the DENR use to work for Duke Energy, when he took over the organization, he changed their charter to one of protecting corporate industry and changing regulations so that the industries would not run afoul of the legislation. And yes he is a Republican. And N.C. Governor is a Republican.

Amy Adams, resigned in November 2013, saying she was dissuaded from levying sanctions against companies like Duke since McCrory took office in 2010. Amy was interviewed by Rachel and it was extremely informative.

I would be very concerned for my health, the health of my children due to the state of my drinking water if I lived in North Carolina. Another fail of

And now folks you see why Lamar Smith wants to hobble the EPA.

Meanwhile in North Carolina you have 30 year Duke Energy vetran Governor Pat McCrory who has been using the power of the govt in NC to sheild Duke Energy from lawsuits as a result of massive pollution. Spilling things like arsenic, lead, mercury and other things into NC waterways. In every single lawsuit the McCrory administration intervened and shut the lawsuits down. Now you have the lastest massive spill

Was covered on Rachel Maddow's show last night (Tuesday, 2/11/14, A disastrous toxic spill broke NC interference for governor’s former firm) and was shocking.

officials at the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) invoked a provision in the federal Clean Water Act allowing them to step in as plaintiffs against Duke Energy when Duke was being sued by environmental activists over the toxic coal ash ponds at its facilities.

In N.C. for state residents (citizens) to sue, they have to give a 60 days written notice.

• ~ On day 58 of the 60 day notice, for the first spill, the DENR, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, stepped in and said we will handle it.
• ~ The group discovered a second Duke Energy plant was polluting and gave their 60 day notice that they intended to sue, on day 60 the DENR stepped in and said we will handle it.
• ~ The same NC Citizens group discovered a 3rd Duke site polluting and put in their 60 day notice to sue, you guessed it, on day 60 the DENR stepped in and said we will handle it (basically voiding the lawsuit).
• ~ All three sites continue to pollute the ground water (NC. citizen's drinking water) today with no attempts to clean anything up.
• ~ They Duke Energy were fined less than $100,000.00. I wonder how much the clean up will be and as with the oil companies if they will be paid twice. Usually these companies have another shell company to do the clean up and hide the extent of the damage. For the oil companies in the gulf research 'corexit', 'oil' and 'dispersants', you will see the similarity.

The state reached settlements worth a collective $99,000 for those incidents. (Duke Energy)

You see the new head of the DENR use to work for Duke Energy, when he took over the organization, he changed their charter to one of protecting corporate industry and changing regulations so that the industries would not run afoul of the legislation. And yes he is a Republican. And N.C. Governor is a Republican.

Amy Adams, resigned in November 2013, saying she was dissuaded from levying sanctions against companies like Duke since McCrory took office in 2010. Amy was interviewed by Rachel and it was extremely informative.

I would be very concerned for my health, the health of my children due to the state of my drinking water if I lived in North Carolina. Another fail of

And now folks you see why Lamar Smith wants to hobble the EPA.

Meanwhile in North Carolina you have 30 year Duke Energy vetran Governor Pat McCrory who has been using the power of the govt in NC to sheild Duke Energy from lawsuits as a result of massive pollution. Spilling things like arsenic, lead, mercury and other things into NC waterways. In every single lawsuit the McCrory administration intervened and shut the lawsuits down. Now you have the lastest massive spill

Was covered on Rachel Maddow's show last night (Tuesday, 2/11/14, A disastrous toxic spill broke NC interference for governor’s former firm) and was shocking.

officials at the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) invoked a provision in the federal Clean Water Act allowing them to step in as plaintiffs against Duke Energy when Duke was being sued by environmental activists over the toxic coal ash ponds at its facilities.

In N.C. for state residents (citizens) to sue, they have to give a 60 days written notice.

• ~ On day 58 of the 60 day notice, for the first spill, the DENR, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, stepped in and said we will handle it.
• ~ The group discovered a second Duke Energy plant was polluting and gave their 60 day notice that they intended to sue, on day 60 the DENR stepped in and said we will handle it.
• ~ The same NC Citizens group discovered a 3rd Duke site polluting and put in their 60 day notice to sue, you guessed it, on day 60 the DENR stepped in and said we will handle it (basically voiding the lawsuit).
• ~ All three sites continue to pollute the ground water (NC. citizen's drinking water) today with no attempts to clean anything up.
• ~ They Duke Energy were fined less than $100,000.00. I wonder how much the clean up will be and as with the oil companies if they will be paid twice. Usually these companies have another shell company to do the clean up and hide the extent of the damage. For the oil companies in the gulf research 'corexit', 'oil' and 'dispersants', you will see the similarity.

The state reached settlements worth a collective $99,000 for those incidents. (Duke Energy)

You see the new head of the DENR use to work for Duke Energy, when he took over the organization, he changed their charter to one of protecting corporate industry and changing regulations so that the industries would not run afoul of the legislation. And yes he is a Republican. And N.C. Governor is a Republican.

Amy Adams, resigned in November 2013, saying she was dissuaded from levying sanctions against companies like Duke since McCrory took office in 2010. Amy was interviewed by Rachel and it was extremely informative.

I would be very concerned for my health, the health of my children due to the state of my drinking water if I lived in North Carolina. Another fail of

And now folks you see why Lamar Smith wants to hobble the EPA.

Meanwhile in North Carolina you have 30 year Duke Energy vetran Governor Pat McCrory who has been using the power of the govt in NC to sheild Duke Energy from lawsuits as a result of massive pollution. Spilling things like arsenic, lead, mercury and other things into NC waterways. In every single lawsuit the McCrory administration intervened and shut the lawsuits down. Now you have the lastest massive spill

Was covered on Rachel Maddow's show last night (Tuesday, 2/11/14, A disastrous toxic spill broke NC interference for governor’s former firm) and was shocking.

officials at the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) invoked a provision in the federal Clean Water Act allowing them to step in as plaintiffs against Duke Energy when Duke was being sued by environmental activists over the toxic coal ash ponds at its facilities.

In N.C. for state residents (citizens) to sue, they have to give a 60 days written notice.

• ~ On day 58 of the 60 day notice, for the first spill, the DENR, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, stepped in and said we will handle it.
• ~ The group discovered a second Duke Energy plant was polluting and gave their 60 day notice that they intended to sue, on day 60 the DENR stepped in and said we will handle it.
• ~ The same NC Citizens group discovered a 3rd Duke site polluting and put in their 60 day notice to sue, you guessed it, on day 60 the DENR stepped in and said we will handle it (basically voiding the lawsuit).
• ~ All three sites continue to pollute the ground water (NC. citizen's drinking water) today with no attempts to clean anything up.
• ~ They Duke Energy were fined less than $100,000.00. I wonder how much the clean up will be and as with the oil companies if they will be paid twice. Usually these companies have another shell company to do the clean up and hide the extent of the damage. For the oil companies in the gulf research 'corexit', 'oil' and 'dispersants', you will see the similarity.

The state reached settlements worth a collective $99,000 for those incidents. (Duke Energy)

You see the new head of the DENR use to work for Duke Energy, when he took over the organization, he changed their charter to one of protecting corporate industry and changing regulations so that the industries would not run afoul of the legislation. And yes he is a Republican. And N.C. Governor is a Republican.

Amy Adams, resigned in November 2013, saying she was dissuaded from levying sanctions against companies like Duke since McCrory took office in 2010. Amy was interviewed by Rachel and it was extremely informative.

I would be very concerned for my health, the health of my children due to the state of my drinking water if I lived in North Carolina. Another fail of

I realize that Big Pharma have a vested interest in their bottom lines but they also are allowed lengthy patents on all of their products, essentially giving them license to print money for years. India on the other hand has no interest in paying for patents when they have millions of people who can benefit from the medications that Big Pharma have produced. That's wrong too and two wrongs don't make a right.

I mean, you can get tons of generic medications, made in India, from all kinds of third party pharmacies all over the world. It's great for the consumer but it undermines IP rights and the research investments that Big Pharma make. Does this hurt Big Pharma? Well yes but I don't see any of them going bankrupt and only in nations where they're allowed to have a monopoly, like the US, would they not be more amenable to reducing their pricing structure? Last year it was reported that just on Medicare in the US Big Pharma netted $711 Billion in profits. That's not exactly going broke.

Why? Well the ACA didn't touch Big Pharma nor did it open the doors and allow more generics to be imported, that was a back room deal but it still remains that while they should be allowed to protect their IP, they shouldn't be allowed to charge outrageous, over-the-top prices for what they produce. Some of these companies even charge less for the same product in other nations than they do in the US. They even have gone so far as to sue Maine for allowing Candian pharmacy imports. If we're going to start reducing healthcare costs worldwide we have to start addressing Big Pharma and their political influence and to come to an understanding that they can't just live off the the ills of the people they're supposed to help. If we could get to that level, then there wouldn't be the need for $15,000 injections nor the need for India to circumvent intellectual property rights to keep their citizens alive nor for everybody else to pay outrageous prices for medications which improve the quality of life.
     

(damn'd. Need coffee). Here's the link to the Dems' opposition piss of news.

Iron curtain, no. Stasi, maybe

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/201...

Even a true-blue Stasi operative (retired) couldn't help but to marvel at the level of sophistication the Western Stasi has in their possession.

Wolfgang Schmidt, 78, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Stasi, lamented that during his stint in the Stasi organization, their listening devices could only spy on 40 telephone lines at once. Targets had to be prioritized, and to take on a new spying subject, an old one had to be let go.

They don't have the option in the US (or most countries) to pay their workers in bitcoin

This is obviously lie. One counterexample: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/03/kentucky-town-from-colbert-report-to-pay-police-chief-in-bitcoin/

People who are getting all Drunk on bitcoin really need to look at what happens when private industry is allowed to control currency and payment systems.
Here's a start: wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrip
Make no mistake, bitcoin is not nearly as "decentralized" as people would like you to think, and it's not nearly as free from manipulation as is claimed. The difference is that it's the privately owned Exchanges which get to make the rules, as opposed to governments.

What do you mean by that? Scrip has central authority which controls how is it issued, bitcoin has no such think. What rules did the exchanges make? I thought all the rules are given by the bitcoin protocol described in the original whitepaper: bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf. No private industry controls bitcoin.

Actually facebook hires censors in third world countries to read your posts for a dollar an hour. Don't know if "private" messages are included.

No shit! o.O

A terrorist is a freedom fighter who isn't on your side.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/08/29/fbi-called-mlk-most-dangerous-negro-in-the-u-s-after-i-have-a-dream-speech/

A terrorist is a freedom fighter who isn't on your side.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/08/29/fbi-called-mlk-most-dangerous-negro-in-the-u-s-after-i-have-a-dream-speech/

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/11/20/texas-cops-force-drivers-off-the-road-to-give-dna-to-federal-contractors/

This is one of those things where LE thinks how easy their job would be and how much more effective they could be if they had everyone's DNA on file and people of course worry about anyone having that kind of power.

We're not Norway (unfortunately by my lights) people. If we dont' trust each other with this level of information,maybe that's because we know each other and we therefore ought to listen to ourselves.

Sure all knowledge and power and everything could *could* be used just totally for good and never for evil. And? And? And your argument is?

Pretending that a corrosive kind of corruption isn't being enabled with these kinds of god-level knowledge of what everyone does, is, thinks, where they go and who they talk to- pretending that this doesn't enable evil (as well as good) or that the evil is just SO unlikely, is just stupid and quite frankly anyone trying to pass themselves off as incensed that I should worry about this , or to paint me as WAAAAY out there, is not even naive in my view, but most likely a manipulative liar.

We know ourselves. We grew up here , went to elementary school here, got our first jobs here and we've seen what we've seen and know what we know about ourselves. Thus the popular resistance to such measures. .

Technically, so was Jesus. Irrevocable Proof

The FBI used similar tactics on the "most dangerous Negro" aka Martin Luther King -- they bugged his bedroom and then tried to blackmail him with an audiotape of him having sex with women who weren't his wife.

On the one hand we are all glad that he persevered, on the other hand, he was the "Reverend" Martin Luther King Jr. and he was cheating on his wife with multiple women. Hypocritical scumbag, even though also a great man.

The FBI used similar tactics on the "most dangerous Negro" aka Martin Luther King -- they bugged his bedroom and then tried to blackmail him with an audiotape of him having sex with women who weren't his wife.

How about some facts instead of bullshit. http://www.who.int/features/qa/18/en/. So temperature doesn't seem to rate all that big. However http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lower_respiratory_tract_infection according to the map certainly favours equatorial regions including the subtropics. Diarrhea is really lethal http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs330/en/, caused by things like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholera and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dysentry, neither one known as a temperate climate disease more tropical and subtropical. As for the others neither here nor there in terms of warm or cold whether except perhaps sugary drinks are for more likely to be drunk in cold weather. Of course others tropical diseases come to mind like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dengi_fever, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaria and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_fever_virus#Cause.

Parasitical organism generally by far represent the greatest threat of infection with associated organism and most generally do not abide freezing whether full snow or just overnight frosts which generally limits there spread.

Never to forget tropical and subtropical storms are far more violent and common. As for temperature yes well if it freezing and you deny the elderly heat through greed they will freeze to death, by the same token once it gets past 35 degrees centigrade and you deny the elderly air-conditioning as recommended by Fox not-News http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/10/10/fox-news-hasselbeck-calls-air-conditioning-the-ugly-side-of-welfare/ they are going to die as well.

So yes if you ignore disease (no universal health care), extremes of weather (everyone for themselves, no federal aid and vulture on down on other people's disasters) and tea bagger greed generally, climate change has no impact on the survivability of the elderly and if you are going to ignore all of those, hell, you just might as well ignore old age as having an impact.

responsible for the website's failure,

seriously, identify specifically the 'failure'

Take all the politics out of it and tell me if the project is in serious trouble. **lists statistics w/o context or source**

Politics aside, project Obamacare is hurting b/c it does not have a **public option**

Otherwise, the 'rollout' is about what could be expected...want proof?

Proof: Compare Obamacare to Romneycare's rollout

Our nation **has never done this on a Federal level**

Yes, I agree that whoever hired the contractors is an idiot and ***should be reprimanded or fired***....the IT work of the Obamacare website was on par with the IT work needed to wire up a very large school district with an intranet and they paid way too much for bullshit...but that's an implementation mistake by procurement...which can and does happen in **any** system govt or private sector

but the only "problem" with Obamacare is that it doesn't have PUBLIC OPTION

The main reason Iran is negotiating on weapons is that the Iranian people elected president Rouhani.

Iran has no nuclear weapons program.
Iran has no nuclear weapons program.
Iran has no nuclear weapons program.

Ask the Pentagon or even the IDF and they'll tell you the same. U.S. threats against Iran - and committing acts of war with Stuxnet or looking the other way as Mossad murders Iran's nuclear scientists - has nothing to do with stopping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, as Iran has no nuclear weapon's program.

And as for good-faith negotiations, Iran has been trying to do just that for over ten years. The U.S. has either ignored those attempts, or to move the goalposts as soon as Iran has done what the U.S. has asked it to do.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/10/24/nc-gop-official-fired-after-bragging-voter-id-law-would-kick-the-democrats-butt/

NC GOP official fired after bragging voter ID law would ‘kick the Democrats’ butt’

I'd call Bloomberg a piece of shit, but I realized that shit is useful. Shit creates jobs. Shit can be used in fecal transplants to cure diseases or to diagnose someone's health. It would be in insult to shit to compare it to Bloomberg (except for his shit which is probably the most useful part of him--he sells it to 1%ers who like to rub in on their noses).

Oh, in other news, Bloomberg is planning to arrest Banksy.

That's basically how content filtering is currently done by major corporations. They give a bunch of third world "consultants" a big list of what's OK and what isn't and just feed them images to select if they're violations or not.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/22/low-wage-facebook-contractor-leaks-secret-censorship-list/

It is biologically possible and actually not difficult at all to rape a man.

From a very quick google.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2013870/Robber-broke-hair-salon-beaten-black-belt-owner-kept-sex-slave-days--fed-Viagra.html
http://www.policymic.com/articles/33593/canadian-man-sexually-assaulted-by-four-women-showing-rape-goes-both-ways
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/09/06/chicago-woman-charged-with-raping-a-man-at-gunpoint-stealing-his-iphone/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/04/07/four-women-wanted-in-alleged-sex-assault-of-19-year-old-man-in-downtown-toronto/

There are also a number of stories I know from an all female residence at the university I went to where girls get a guy drunk at university part and take turns having sex with him when he's passed out. It's a frosh week hazing ritual of sorts, but it's not rape of course because guys don't get raped so afterwards they'll always make a joke of it and act macho, but essentially he has sex with multiple partners without his consent. I can see people laughing already saying to themselves, "yeah like he didn't want it."

But do keep in mind that the Syrian government has a bit more practice and training for this sort of thing.

That would be much easier to believe if not for the fact that the same spooks who trained Bin Laden have been providing support to the "rebels" for almost a year now.

How Senator Mitch McConnell got his information about Ashley Judd's private medical data for a slander campaign; and not see a corollary of the humanity that is the NSA?

If you read the news or the transcripts you would have seen they were talking about *what she wrote in her autobiography.* No one accessed her private medical data...

Let me set you straight :-) about the founding fathers. Michele Bachmann described how the founding fathers worked tirelessly to end slavery. So it must be true! :-)

Anachragnome seems to think that everyone is spying for the NSA. Who is it doing all this mutual spying?

Facebook is building dossiers of everyone, whether they have a Facebook account or not.

The amount of information they can derive is disturbing.

Then Facebook shares the results with the government.

And the nature of the relationship between the two is a little too cozy, to say the least.

a couple of decades? Let's see with San Onofre offline California residents are paying more in electrical rates now and the power is being generated by more mainline gas generation to make up the shortfall. This article indicates to that it may be difficult for California to meet it's CO2 goals because of the need to burn 360 million cubic feet of gas per day to make up for the loss of the reactors at San Onofre.

a Chinese propaganda officer, so called "50 cents".

As opposed to a US propaganda officer that leverages software to allow one person to impersonate multiple people at the same time?

Of course, they couldn't possibly be on US social sites, just like the NSA cannot and does not spy on US citizens. The intelligence service said so and if you can't trust our intelligence agencies, then who can you trust.

which reminded me of an interesting parallel.

Iran has a nuclear program. Critics insist they're trying to build nuclear bombs. Iran insists it's for nuclear energy. But take their word on it because they won't let inspectors anywhere near it.

Interesting fact always left out of this storyline: the two nations raising the most hell over Iran's "nuclear weapons program", the U.S. and Israel, freely admit that Iran...has no nuclear weapons program.

Congratulations, you just demonstrated how little you know about climate science and global climate change. Colder winters and longer winters are both explainable and predictable depending on where you are. For instance, changes in the currents in the ocean may direct colder water towards the UK and northern Europe, thereby actually making for colder winters and more snow. In North America this year, the melting Arctic icecap (which melted much more than usual last summer) added extra heat to the northern oceans, which affected the jetstream, pushing it south. That dragged cold air from the Arctic down much further south.

Climate is wild and woolly, and it's hard to know exactly what's going to happen, but we know enough of what's going to happen and what's happening that most of the complaints you're going to come up with can be explained by Science. And not just some random scientist, but peer-reviewed and published science.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/25/scientists-long-winter-in-u-s-the-result-of-melting-arctic-ice-cap/

We know the poles shift. In fact, that's IN THE SUMMARY. You didn't even have to read the article to see that shifting geographic poles are well known. But they're shifting faster, and NASA's GRACE experiment is also helping measure the subtle shifts in gravity associated with shifting mass. It all seems to be correlating well. Someone else here has even already pointed out this comment in the article:

"The results suggest that tracking polar shifts can serve as a check on current estimates of ice loss."

Are you interested in science or not? Then sit and read and understand the science. Don't go off on a rant before you know a single damn thing of what you're talking about.

I gave sources, read up in the thread. Or don't, and keep claiming I never gave sources. Youtube his appearance on "The Colbert Report" and "The Daily Show". He has claimed the same thing many times in public formats, so I'm willing to bet it's not restricted to those 2 show episodes. Here is an article where he is making the claim.

Will you still claim "you never proved it" or will you admit you were plain old wrong? These quotes and articles are not hard to find at all, use Google.

A militant religionist attacks and kills people. That's why he's called militant. A militant atheist uses words, not weapons, and does not kill anyone.

Hard to understand the Westboro Baptist Church example I take it? No, it's not. But it does not fit your beliefs so again, you probably won't admit you are simply wrong.

Whose messages of hating religion? What are these messages? What are they shouting? Who are they? Also: Sources/examples, please.

If you refuse to admit Krauss is a bigot teaching hatred of Religion then no amount of proof would do any good would it? You refuse to see facts as facts! If you are preaching for the criminalization Religion and claiming that it's abusive, you are attempting to teach hatred.

There is no point in arguing with someone that denies facts to support their beliefs. Hence, I'll close with something I have pointed out for decades. Many atheists are biased the same way a "Bible thumping zealot" is biased. No amount of facts will change their arguments, and they will never consider facts that counter their beliefs. They believe that their beliefs are right, and just like Religious zealots, condemn anyone that believes differently than they do.

That fact is very disturbing, considering that those same atheists claim "We don't know" when asked the question "What created the Universe? (including Lawrence Krauss).

I have yet to hear any of my friends and coworkers that are the less gun control side of the debate talk about shooting the opposition

That speaks well of your friends of coworkers, but there definitely are quite a few deranged pro-gun individuals out there.

Yes, but the question is, is it true.
This post is on topic, on the topic of computers doing things they are most definitely not supposed to be doing, at the whim of the manufacturer.

Lets ask the Google:
http://gizmodo.com/5958088/whys-the-gop-changing-voting-machine-software-right-before-the-election
http://www.salon.com/2012/11/05/ohio_republicans_sneak_risky_software_onto_voting_machines/
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/11/06/pa-voting-machine-taken-out-of-service-for-flipping-votes-to-romney-report/

Hell these Romney's Bain capital even bought some of these voting machines on the run to the election:
http://www.salon.com/2012/10/23/romney_linked_voting_machine_company_to_count_votes_in_ohio/

Republicans are liars and cheats. They will use any underhanded method to rig the shit in their favor, and then they accuse the other side of doing it. Usually when there is little to no evidence of the other side doing anything, and even if they did two wrongs don't make a right.

Mark my words, shit is being rigged against you, and I and the rest of the American public. Money will be funneled into corporate welfare programs, companies will pay no income tax, sometimes even receiving a refund. Fuck big business and the party of big business, the republicans.

There's a big difference between leisure activities that endanger the person pursuing them, and ones that endanger others.

So NASCAR should be outlawed then I take it? It is clearly a threat to more than just those who are driving the cars.

The spectators are there willingly. As far as I am aware NASCAR attendance isn't compulsory.

There's a big difference between leisure activities that endanger the person pursuing them, and ones that endanger others.

So NASCAR should be outlawed then I take it? It is clearly a threat to more than just those who are driving the cars.

You might note that when accidents happen NASCAR acts to reduce the risk of further accidents. You know - move bystanders further from the track, strengthen barricades etc. It's also run on racetracks, in large facilities where the cars can't suddenly go flying out through several layers of wall, across 2km of field and into a nearby house.

NASCAR cars aren't even street-legal to drive on public roads.

There's a big difference between leisure activities that endanger the person pursuing them, and ones that endanger others.

So NASCAR should be outlawed then I take it? It is clearly a threat to more than just those who are driving the cars.

Free Speech is being prorgressively eroded (mostly by the "Progressives", ironiclly).

Free speech is a political concept. My experience is that progressives will generally seek social pressure to modify speech and conservatives will seek political pressure to modify speech. So, to me, it is ironic that you claim progressives try to stifle it. It is not, in my view, stifling free speech (a political concept) to use free speech to shame someone into not continuing to say something you disagree with. A bill like http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/02/15/tennessee-lawmaker-sponsors-dont-say-gay-bill-in-state-house/ is an attempt at stifling free speech. To rephrase, speech isn't free in a social sense, and it should never be treated as such. On the other hand, it should be free politically, that is, should not be politically suppressed through legislation or executive action.

Also, I don't think that this woman's actions represent progressiveness anymore than the more extreme elements of the tea party speak for most of the conservative party. So, while I agree that there are insane pressures against women in the workplace, I do not think this woman has a firm grip on reality.

Z

They do not have a working bomb but they certainly have a program

Even the U.S. and Israel admit Iran has no nuclear weapons program.

Link 1. Link 2.

What fantasy world do you live in where Iran is a peaceful loving nation?

Reality. Feel free to visit it any time.

The United States has: overthrown Iran's democratically elected government, backed a torture loving dictator in the Shah, shot down an Iranian passenger jet, backed Iraq when it attacked Iran, committed an act of war with Stuxnet, has either assassinated Iran's nuclear scientists or aided our client state Israel in doing so, and has spent years violating international law over the nuclear weapons program we admit they don't have.

What Iran hasn't done:

Overthrown socialisticy democracies in favor of capitalistic dictators, launched two illegal wars of choice, set up a world-wide torture regime, set up a world-wide system of gulags, shredded it's own Constitution to deal with a "threat" less severe than a slip in a bathtub, and engaged in illegal covert wars across the world with drones.

Stick that in your jingoistic, American-exceptionalist ass and smoke it.

Hey -- I like the ACLU. Lots. But the ACLU is not a "progressive" (tm) organization. For example:

ACLU chief 'disgusted' with Obama
http://www.politico.com/blogs/joshgerstein/0610/ACLU_chief_disgusted_with_Obama.html

ACLU ad showing Obama morphing into Bush:
http://www.aclu.org/aclu-ad-what-will-it-be-mr-president

ACLU: Obama Has Quadrupled Warrantless Wiretaps
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/09/28/ACLU-Obama-Has-Quadrupled-Warrantless-Wiretaps

ACLU condemns court for keeping details of Obama's assassination program secret
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/01/02/aclu-condemns-court-for-keeping-details-of-obamas-assassination-program-secret/ ... this could go on for pages and pages.

The ACLU is an enemy of Obama, not a friend, and suggesting that its laudable attempts to shed light on the Can-Do-No-Wrong-Obama is some push back from Democrats, is to miss the point entirely. The Democrats are part of the disease that needs to be pushed back against, and the ACLU is doing that as much as it can. That is not however evidence that Democrats are pushing back against their own policies, which were the same policies (or even worse than) of GWB.

The "because" probably was more related to that he was a major voice behind the efforts of against sopa/pipa and other movements. That minor maybe crime was the excuse to get it and then try to make an example, you know, like rape charges by someone associated with the CIA. If you go against or scare them, somehow, even for a parking ticket, you will get into deep shit. Taking away a particular tool that they used once don't mean that they are stopped from using them, or any of the other alternatives.

Oops, messed that up. This--> http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/05/03/pelosi-condemns-obamas-continued-raids-on-marijuana-dispensaries/

Did you happen to notice the date on that article is, oh, about 6 months *before* the President stated his administration's lack of enforcement priority? As in *before* two states legalized marijuana? Nice try at a straw man, though.

Oops, messed that up. This--> http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/05/03/pelosi-condemns-obamas-continued-raids-on-marijuana-dispensaries/

>Food is a much more essential good than fiber optic internet service, and yet I never hear anyone calling for the municipalities to nationalize (city-ize?) all the food stores in town.

I see you know little about America and what is 'nationalized'.

You've not been reading much lately, ISP's have consolidated and are not profit taking at record levels after years of fights cities laying their own fiber, luckly in this case the city finally won and is laying their own fiber at much higher speeds. I worked for one of the ISPs that fought the city at the time. We offered them shitty low speed service and would not spend the capital to upgrade their system. Instead the company spend millions in lobbying and advertizing to keep the city from building its own network.

you obviously know absolutely nothing at all about the subject. ... "Other than dogs, the military would never be interested in pack animals." Oh really?

http://www.veteransmagazine.com/membersarea/MagazineIssues/06thmag/hayburners.pdf
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2007/01/special_forces_use_of_pack_ani.html
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2007/Army_manual_on_using_horses_mules_0130.html

Do you just make up crap and hope that nobody notices that you have no clue at all about what you are saying?

Why spend money on a laser that's not biodegradable, when instead you can just get Israeli bomb-sniffing mice?

Very good thinking. Voting for a third party only in "safe" districts totally eviscerates the point of voting third party. No third party voter thinks their candidate has a snowball's chance, but see it as the only way to raise issues that are never raised due to bipartisan agreement by putting establishment pols at risk of losing elections.

As for the Tea Party, I think that is the perfect example of how naive it is to think that the GOP or DNC can be changed from within. The Tea Party was actually started by a guy who voted for Obama, but within a handful of months, it was totally hijacked by the GOP. There is no point in trying to fix the major parties -- they're a cancer on America and the only solution at this point is to excise them and irradiate the wound.

Citation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Denninger

Karl's best quote on the demise/hijack of the Tea Party: "A financial blogger and ex-CEO credited with being one of the original 'founders' of the Tea Party has come out against the movement, saying it has been hijacked by the very people it was protesting and is now obsessed with 'guns, gays and God.' "

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/10/20/tea-party-founder-slams-tea-party/