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A teacher (junior high, I think) told me years ago that who your mayor is will have a bigger impact on your life than who your president is. So if anything, read the local stuff and don't worry about the presidential race.

BTW: Central Florida suburb, voting was at a retirement home, two people in line in front of me. I spent longer walking to and from my car (I parked in the front, not knowing the voting was in the back) than voting. Around 10am. Used the electronic machine because the trees I save in my lifetime will probably have a bigger impact on the world than who wins any particular race. Look, the whole system is a black box. Paper votes can get lost, mishandled, or ignored just as easily as a voting machine can get hacked.

http://www.sptimes.com/2004/11/16/Tampabay/Pinellas_ballot_box_s.shtml

The story that made the splash was the one about the Florida man who used an open access point and was charged with illegal access of a computer network.

In St. Petersburg, 2005, Benjamin Smith III was arrested and charged with "unauthorized access to a computer network", a third-degree felony in the state of Florida, after using a resident's wireless network from a car parked outside.[22][23]

22. Leary, Alex (2005-07-04). "Wi-Fi cloaks a new breed of intruder". St. Petersburg Times. Retrieved 2007-09-02.

There's no followup about whether or not he was convicted of anything.

"Neither Iran nor North Korea would be such a big problem for us now if we hadn't sponsored a coup in one, and used the other as a proxy during the Cold War."

What the fuck are you talking about with respect to >>>>Northhttp://www.rt66.com/~korteng/SmallArms/TimeLine.htm#1950

http://www.sptimes.com/2003/webspecials03/koreanwar/timeline.shtml

"United Nations Secretary-General Trygve Lie comments, "This is war against the United Nations."

If this was Microsoft or Apple, nobody would be buying that explanation.

Even if you were right, Google isn't any less exempt from blame, because it would mean there is so little oversight over handling of user data that one engineer can put into place a program that indexes emails and passwords under everyone's nose for three years. If an individual had done this, authorities would have punished them.

The answer to that problem is to use reclaimed waste water.

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/05/28/Hillsborough/Ethanol_faces_big_hur.shtml

From TFA "Michael Mullan, a biomedical researcher who is now head of the Roskamp Institute in Sarasota, Florida, patented the sequence in 1995, then sold it to the AIA."

A little bit of googling shows that the AIA is affiliated with Archer Pharmaceuticals: "Archer Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Archer) was founded in 2008 and specializes in targeted drug discovery for Alzheimer’s disease. Led by Chief Executive Officer and Chief Scientific Officer Michael Mullan, M.B.B.S., Ph.D. and Chief Technical Officer and Associate Chief Scientific Officer Fiona Crawford, Ph.D."

The AIA is also related to the Roskamp Institute: "The foundation for the Institute’s work was set more than a decade ago by Roskamp’s two lead researchers, Drs. Michael Mullan and Fiona Crawford. They were key members of a pioneering team of scientists who, in the early 1990s, discovered that the onset of Alzheimer’s was directly related to the accumulation of a protein called ß-amyloid." The staff page lists about 15 people.

And then that http://www.sptimes.com/2003/02/20/TampaBay/Alzheimer_s_research_.shtml and that http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v425/n6961/full/425889a.html.

I would not be surprised if the institute is running out of money and they are trying to make a quick buck in settlements. The guy has published at a high level but as far as I understand he was neither the lead nor the senior investigator on the initial study so I don't understand how he could have sold the rights to a foundation that he obviously created just for the purpose of suing.

First, that's not true. Bush did more to stop AIDS in Africa than any person in the world, anywhere at any time.

This is far from the truthe. The fact that Bush would not fund any help that included condoms as a means for reducing the spread of HIV actually hurt African AIDS efforts. US cuts in funding for condoms and an emphasis on promoting abstinence had contributed to a shortage of condoms in Uganda. AIDS actually spread significantly in Africa under Bush.

They may have spent more money, but that money was targetted towards religious groups that promoted abstinence. The abstinence programs have been shown to have an actual NEGATIVE effect towards reducing AIDS in every country where they have been tried without actively promoting condom/vaginal-barrier use as the primary method of AIDS prevention.

Read the comment above yours. It appears you are wrong.

Sure, the program does teach abstinence over condoms, it still teaches condoms. And if the Guardian is so upset about the US not giving more condoms to Africa, maybe they should petition their host government, the UK, to pick up the slack and send some condoms themselves. You can do the same as a private citizen or whatever country you are from.

I hate people that sit around and bitch about other people not doing more while they do nothing themselves!

First, that's not true. Bush did more to stop AIDS in Africa than any person in the world, anywhere at any time.

This is far from the truthe. The fact that Bush would not fund any help that included condoms as a means for reducing the spread of HIV actually hurt African AIDS efforts. US cuts in funding for condoms and an emphasis on promoting abstinence had contributed to a shortage of condoms in Uganda. AIDS actually spread significantly in Africa under Bush.

They may have spent more money, but that money was targetted towards religious groups that promoted abstinence. The abstinence programs have been shown to have an actual NEGATIVE effect towards reducing AIDS in every country where they have been tried without actively promoting condom/vaginal-barrier use as the primary method of AIDS prevention.

• War on Poverty
• War on Hunger
• War on Illiteracy

So many wars to choose from... so little time.

flown by a 15-year-old student pilot who took off minutes earlier without permission from St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport.

So after 9/11 a random plane flew into a building. And this plane took off without permission.

It's one of those once-in-a-lifetime events.

Just because you do not think a terrorist will takeover a plane and crash it does not mean you do not have a drunk pilot or a suicidal pilot or maybe a disabled plane. You also have to take into account that 9/11 happened in New York.

One of the things that was experimented with about a decade ago was allowing jurors to ask questions. This would apply to both witnesses and council. The reason jurors are looking things up is because they have unanswered questions about the case. Get them an official answer.

http://www.sptimes.com/2008/01/04/State/Change_lets_jurors_su.shtml

The government did nothing of the sort. The government does not own something you patent even if they were paying you to work on that project.

Yeap, this is your disconnect. The NCI, a government agency, developed and paid for Taxol. It then gave BMS exclusive rights to the data for Taxol. The General Accounting Office, a congressional office, in 2003 which concluded that the NIH, of which the NCI is part, had failed to ensure value for money. All BMS did was, once they got those rights, was reduce the cost of making Taxol. They were able to get the cost for one dose to less than a dollar yet a treatment course cost thousands of dollars.

The RESEARCHERS sold something that THEY owned.

The researchers did not own anything, their employer did and the government was their employer.

And many employers, if they offer health insurance benefits, require you to have them.

Only one employer I worked for that offered health insurance required employees to get it, and that was the military. No other employer required health insurance, half of them didn't even offer health insurance.

Falcon

In my opinion, churches that take stances on political issues like that should lose their tax-exempt status, as the clause under which they are tax exempt clearly prohibits political activism.

The IRS would seem to agree with you.
An example. (Random google find, it mentions many churches being investigated)

I've heard there's now hundreds of cases like these going on with the IRS removing tax exempt status from many churches nation wide. It's about time, religion and politics have been strongly mixed throughout history and the United States has been no exception. Many churches you go inside and they'll start straight out telling you who and what to vote for. Ministers can't sell the votes of their congregations without becoming a political organization as much as they might like to believe otherwise.

Can't get to the wikileaks site, but if the summary is correct, then this is interesting because in Florida, with the Sunshine Law, this could result in her prosecution. In Florida you cannot conduct, or even discuss, government business in private.

http://www.fsne.org/sunshine2005/news/history/index.shtml

For example, W. D. Childers went to jail for discussing government business in private.

http://www.sptimes.com/2004/10/08/State/Ex_Florida_Senate_pre.shtml

Not sure if Alaska has something similar.

I wish people would just learn that Wikipedia simply isn't accurate. I mean with the fraud of secrete editing groups, hidden agendas, political leaning in stories, tenured professers living in mom basement in a state far far away from the school that they lay claim to but has never heard of them, and so on.

Here is a link you should look at. It reports on the actual study itself instead of write a few paragraphs that aren't cited and making you a believer of nonsense. And before you claim bias, the Clinton News Network is traditionally a left leaning organization/site. Now, before you get into a hissy and point to the Washinton post that claims Gore could have won if a state wide recount happened, keep in mind that it would only be true if over votes were counted. Now, over votes is where someone clearly made an attempt to emphasize who they voted for and it was counted twice. The story explains it.

BTW, The St. Petersburg Times was a cosponsor of the recount and have access to the original report. I attempted to keep all my links to sites that were in fact sponsors to the recount.

You have to aslo ask yourself, do we really want a president elected because we have to hand count and interpret some moron's intent when they can't even handle a task as simple as casting a vote clearly? I mean I can understand when a machine messes up and doesn't remove the chads, but failing to ask for another ballot when instruction right on the thing said if you make a mistake, erase it or get a new one.

Here in Tampa, Florida area, this was recently a very big deal. One of the things Tampa is famous for is Grouper, and several well-known restaurants were found to be serving cheaper fish instead of Grouper.

6 out of 11 restaurants served cheaper fish.

According to that article though it's hard to tell whether the deception was intentional, and even if so, who was deceptive: the restaurant, the wholesaler, etc.

Uh, no. In other words, it is preferable to catch the kid when he attempts to sell the TV, or after he has fled the scene, or at some other point, or, just let him have the freaking TV and get him the next time. That's the thing with criminals. They don't steal just once; and even if you miss them 9 times out of 10, you'll get the bastard on the 10th attempt.

2nd person pronouns are misplaced here. The victim has no authority or ability to put out a BOLO, monitor pawn shops, arrest and detain. They have to rely on the police. Honestly, though, unless you A) are a cop, B) are family of or friends with a cop, or C) are high profile enough for the cops to make it worth their while to care (rich, elected official, celebrity), then your issue just isn't high on their list of priorities.

It would be awesome to catch them after-the-fact, but, let face it, if you don't catch them in the act you simply won't.

And society is better off if we don't kill kids for stealing TVs.

I'd heartlessly contend that weeding out a subsection of the population that has no problems committing crimes against others is a net good for society, kids for stealing TVs or CEOs for misappropriating pension funds.

Actually, depending on the kid, if he knows you have a gun in your home, he's MORE LIKELY to break into your home IF YOU HAVE A GUN, to steal your gun. He'll just wait until you're not home.

Actually, depending on the kid, if he knows you have a PS3 in your home, he's MORE LIKELY to break into your home IF YOU HAVE A PS3, to steal your PS3. He'll just wait until you're not home.

Actually, depending on the kid, if he knows you have a Mac Pro in your home, he's MORE LIKELY to break into your home IF YOU HAVE A Mac Pro, to steal your Mac Pro. He'll just wait until you're not home.

Do I need more examples to point out what a load of bull that argument is? Coveting an item leads to the attempted theft of the item, regardless of what specificly it is.

What kind of pansy are you? You, your wife, and your daughters are home, and ONE KID with a gun, in the close quarters of your home, is going to keep you at bay with a gun AND rape your wife and daughters at the same time?

And if it wasn't one kid but instead a gang of them? So much for that snarky "you have no arms" comment.

Besides, even a pansy with a firearm can meet force with force. They don't call it an equalizing factor for nothing.

When criminals invade homes, they try REALLY REALLY HARD to invade homes that are either EMPTY, or so freaking large that they can move around the home and never encounter the home owner.

That's true, but mistakes happen and unfortunately it's the occupant that gets killed or held as a hostage or worse. They don't come in with the intention of killing a homeowner and squatting there: they come in armed for insurance against someone trying to stop them... that same kind of insurance a homeowner would themselves want. Like botched surgery, the fact that is almost never happens isn't much consolidation if it happens to you.

A criminal is screwed if you have a gun and he doesn't if and only if:
- You're awake when the criminal gets to you.
- You're awake and aware enough to understand that the criminal is, indeed, a criminal, and understand this in enough time to get your gun, point it at the criminal, and shoot the criminal, all before he gets within arms reach of you, in which case you're engaged in a 50-50 struggle over the gun. (Actually, since the criminal is probably fully awake, less than 50-50 odds for you.)

Whoa, whoa, wait, I thought criminals only target empty homes? If you're not awakened and don't become aware of the situation, that means the criminal is being stealthy and that would imply they're trying to hide because they know you're in there. You could argue one or the other, but

Progress Energy tripled its estimate for its new nuclear power plant in Levy County, saying Monday that the new price is$17-billion. ... It plans to build two Westinghouse AP1000 reactors, with a capacity of 1,100 megawatts each.

The Church of Scientology has alleged in an injunction for protection from harrassment filed with Clearwater county officials today, March 12th, that they suspect a group of peaceful protestors calling themselves "Anonymous" will try to murder a prominent leader of the Church named Heber Jentzsch, on or around Thursday, March 13th, 2008. They have used this allegation as the basis for their request for a restraining order against peaceful protestors, which is in violation of every american's "right to peaceful assembly."

Anonymous has no intention of harming this man, or any other member of the Church, in any way, shape or form. However, Anonymous fears for Heber Jentzsch's physical safety. We believe he is being detained against his will by the Church, possibly at the Hemet, California Gold base Scientology location, which is a secure armed compound. He has not been seen publicly for nearly five years, that we are aware of currently.

The Church of Scientology has demonstrated before that they will not hesitate to cause harm to critics or even church members, if it furthers their agenda. They have been legally implicated in the deaths of dozens of people, both critics and church members alike. Anonymous believes Mr. Jentzsch is in danger of being injured, imprisoned or even killed by the Church of Scientology, so that they may place the blame on Anonymous and thus shift attention away from illegal activities within the Church that Anonymous is presently working to expose.

Anonymous is very concerned for Mr. Jentzsch's safety. We strongly urge the FBI to investigate and, if at possible, locate and place Mr. Jentzsch in protective custody as soon as can be arranged. Thank you for your consideration.

-Anonymous

The Church of Scientology has alleged in an injunction for protection from harrassment filed with Clearwater county officials today, March 12th, that they suspect a group of peaceful protestors calling themselves "Anonymous" will try to murder a prominent leader of the Church named Heber Jentzsch, on or around Thursday, March 13th, 2008. They have used this allegation as the basis for their request for a restraining order against peaceful protestors, which is in violation of every american's "right to peaceful assembly."

Anonymous has no intention of harming this man, or any other member of the Church, in any way, shape or form. However, Anonymous fears for Heber Jentzsch's physical safety. We believe he is being detained against his will by the Church, possibly at the Hemet, California Gold base Scientology location, which is a secure armed compound. He has not been seen publicly for nearly five years, that we are aware of currently.

The Church of Scientology has demonstrated before that they will not hesitate to cause harm to critics or even church members, if it furthers their agenda. They have been legally implicated in the deaths of dozens of people, both critics and church members alike. Anonymous believes Mr. Jentzsch is in danger of being injured, imprisoned or even killed by the Church of Scientology, so that they may place the blame on Anonymous and thus shift attention away from illegal activities within the Church that Anonymous is presently working to expose.

Anonymous is very concerned for Mr. Jentzsch's safety. We strongly urge the FBI to investigate and, if at possible, locate and place Mr. Jentzsch in protective custody as soon as can be arranged. Thank you for your consideration.

-Anonymous

...Slashdot was the last place I could go to avoid Storms. No one took her seriously when she was on the Hillsborough Council, and is an unabashed bigot http://www.sptimes.com/2005/06/09/Hillsborough/Library_no_place_for_.shtml. That said, I think cleaver teachers could twist this nicely. It states they can present "science." This could actually be used against teaching ID. My vote is to let it pass and then use it to fuck with Storms' brain.

Or Maybe this
http://www.sptimes.com/2008/02/19/Northpinellas/Scourge_of_Scientolog.shtml

Payne said that he last spoke to Lonsdale two months ago, and that Lonsdale had found steady work on the night shift at a local company, stocking shelves. He talked about going back to school and getting a private investigator's license. "He was getting on with his life," Payne said. "He had every reason to live."

Google is your friend. The poor schlub is Mark O'Hara:

http://blogs.tampabay.com/breakingnews/2007/08/freed-man-faces.html

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/07/23/Opinion/The_nonsensical_trial.shtml

http://www.totallawyers.com/legal-articles-vicodin.asp

http://www.miami-criminal-lawyer.net/caselaw/2007/07/18/ohara-v-state/

Ah well, since you asked...

$12.5 Million Deal With I.R.S. Lifted Cloud Over Scientologists, December 31, 1997, Douglas Frantz, New York Times
A church accounting, November 12, 2007, Editorial, St. Petersburg Times
Neither Side Blinks in a Lengthy Feud, June 29, 1990, Robert W. Welkos, Los Angeles Times
Scientology's Puzzling Journey From Tax Rebel to Tax Exempt, March 9, 1997, Douglas Frantz, New York Times
Who Can Stand Up?, March 16, 1997, Frank Rich, New York Times

-FL

More often than you think.

And that's just with a few minutes searching google.

It isn't MySpace's fault that it attracts young teenagers and with them, the predators that prey on them, but this is a real problem. It isn't a technical problem, but a social problem and needs to be treated as such.

Can Floridian school boards really claim to not understand why 40% of their 8th grade students lack even just a "basic" understanding of science? Or why they can't retain/get enough qualified science teachers?
They know science education is important, they know that without it, the won't be competitive in the global economy. With evolution framing all of our knowledge of biology, do you really expect these kids to be taken seriously when they enter the job market? How the hell are they going to get through an evolutionary biology class in college if they are taught to believe the mumbo jumbo ID BS?
On a related topic, does anyone have any thoughts on how the US in general can start to retain more of the science talent that we have? Any thoughts from those of you in other countries as to how you retain teachers?
As much as I would like to say the problem is just located on America's Wang, its not, we have a science education brain drain all over this country. There isn't nearly enough emphasis on science/engineering throughout our school system, and adding to the problem, we wont give work visas to the foreign students who get graduate degrees here.
We know the whole US cant just switch to a service economy with everyone ironing each others shirts for money, we have to drive/design new tech to maintain our leadership.
How can we reverse this trend?

First, I think you're a little mixed up about your terminology. Lever machines are mechanical voting systems that have nothing to do with paper. Punch card voting systems are what you're taking about. They're essentially a booklet with holes next to candidate names. Voters take a spike and stick it through the hole, "punching," a standard paper computer punch card.

Your first argument is not entirely accurate. No one is suggesting that fraud is acceptable if the results are fast.

As for your second argument, there is a pretty common misconception that all blind people can read braille. At least in the U.S. by far the majority of the sight impaired cannot. Also, there are many other disabilities that have nothing to do with sight that prevent people from using paper ballots.

The actual main argument against "paper-and-pencil-voting" is the difficulty and cost involved with complex paper balloting. The U.S. is fairly unique globally for running very few elections combining all races at once and voting on many more offices and resolutions that most other nations. These offices vary greatly based on geographic region causing a single region to have hundreds if not thousands of variations of ballot combinations. Yes in the U.S. we have one ballot for everything, not separate ballots. For only a primary election one region in Florida had 1,500 ballot variations. This only gets more complex with increased populations.
Other than accessibility, the primary benefit of having at least some kind of electronic component at the polling place is that it can inform voters of unintentional errors like overvotes (voting for more candidates than allowed invalidating their vote). Based on all the empirical evidence from academic research, we can pretty safely say that more votes get counted when there is some kind of notification for voters.

Elections in Canada are very different to those in the United States. Canadians are likely to be voting for a single office (or very few) and likely never combined with referenda. In the U.S. It is standard to be voting for dozens of offices and issues. These offices vary greatly based on geographic region causing a single region to have hundreds if not thousands of variations of ballot combinations. Yes in the U.S. we have one ballot for everything, not separate ballots. For only a primary election one region in Florida had 1,500 ballot variations. This only gets more complex with increased populations.

Thanks for you intellectual input, but this just isn't as simple as you think it is.

like this current event? http://www.sptimes.com/2007/08/29/Northpinellas/_H ogan_s_son_was_seen.shtml

Satellite TV's war on pirates blocks Cuba's secret viewers

Well I googled (you know. . to uh. . verify the integrity of the summary) but came across something also quite bizarre . . .2 people died after crawling into a large helium filled balloon in a rich suburban neighborhood. . .sometimes google surprises me with what it thinks is relevant to my query.

Regardless of what you learn from Bill OReilly, I can assure you HALF the women are NOT undergoing honor killings. Honor killings are a myth perpetuated by Western Media to dehumanize Muslims and justify further attacks on Muslims. Do men kill women in the middle east? yes. But someone in NYC also killed their wife last week. Here is another incident: http://www.sptimes.com/News/041800/Hillsborough/Ma n_kills_wife__self_.shtml Vicissidude clearly has an agenda.

A quick review of the MP3 players currenty for sale at Amazon and Best Buy shows that every MP3 player except for the iPods plays WMA. Maybe "nobody cares," but WMA was pushed very hard as a candidate for the leading digital music standard. It would not be unreasonable to claim that the main reason it failed to become the de facto standard is because of Apple's iPod and iTunes Music Store. (Which use AAC, a codec definition which is a standard.)

Also, although the market share of the segment is small, WMA-based stores do sell a lot of digital music tracks. See http://www.sptimes.com/2006/10/30/Technology/Digit al_music_users_f.shtml for some music store market shares in 2006, giving WMA around 15%, MP3 around 10%, and iTunes (AAC) around 70%. (Yes, I know that a lot of digital music collections were converted from CD's in whatever format the user chose, but it is hard to measure those collections.)

Considering that total digital music sales were about 581 million digital tracks, that still means a lot of WMA tracks out there, about 87 million. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117956655.html?c ategoryid=16&cs=1 Note that this gives AAC downloads about 406 million tracks downloaded, so it would also not be unreasonable to claim that many iPod owners listen to AAC. (Links do not specify region, but data appears to be U.S. only.)

Shouldn't we be more worried about people flying airplanes into skyscrapers and things like that, vs probably incompetent medical care? and if I recall correctly criminal charges were dropped because the Florida Coroner in the case was basically an incompetent screwball. (read down to see the problems with the testimony) To tell you the truth, some of the critics are overly OCD about this too. So much so that they scare me.

So, what do you have to do in order to be considered a journalist in France?

Surrender?

So, what do you have to do in order to be considered a journalist in France?

Surrender?

This has been an interesting dialogue to read.

Just to throw in another possibility previously discussed on slashdot, perhaps "TV" helps cause autism in those susceptible to it. See:
    "TV Really Might Cause Autism"
    http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/1 7/0435250
Though others disagree:
    "Does Watching TV Cause Autism?"
    http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,154 8682,00.html
(even suggesting indoor air quality might be part of the problem).

See also:
    "Toddlers' TV habits may 'rewire' brains"
    http://www.sptimes.com/2004/04/05/Worldandnation/T oddlers__TV_habits_m.shtml
"Very young children who watch television face an increased risk of attention deficit problems by school age, a study has found, suggesting that TV might overstimulate and permanently "rewire" the developing brain. ... The researchers didn't know what shows the children watched, but Christakis said content likely isn't the culprit. Instead, he said, fast-paced visual images typical of most TV programming may alter brain development."

Autism (or other similar seeming behavioral issues) it likely to be a multi-factorial disease, with many interacting causes -- genetics, diet, heavy metal exposure, viruses, TV, stress, and so on. Some of these factors may weigh more than others -- probably all are involved to some degree or another, and the amount may vary by individual based on how well their genetics can compensate for various problems whether they are too little good fats, too much heavy metals from whatever sources, or exposure to rapidly flickering changing scenes on TV. And it remains true that eating right, exercising, moderation in vices like TV, and trying to reduce stress are all good things to do in almost any situation (which is why I like that omega-3 suggestion, because it is probably not going to hurt, but generally may improve health). So too for not watching TV -- getting rid of your TV can't hurt much, and probably will improve health. Vaccination is admittedly a much more controversial topic. Here is one of the less sensationalized books on that:
    "Vaccinations: A Thoughtful Parent's Guide: How to Make Safe, Sensible Decisions about the Risks, Benefits, and Alternatives"
    http://www.amazon.com/Vaccinations-Thoughtful-Sens ible-Decisions-Alternatives/dp/0892819316

What the hell is the bomb squad for?

Yes, we all know we can trust the IRS to give us accurage information.

But I believe a fair number of stocks on the NYSE pay dividends.

Can't speak to what happens in Canada, but in the U.S. around 45% of stocks pay dividends:

In the broader market among all companies with at least $100-million in market value, about 45 percent pay a dividend, up from 39 percent six years ago, according to Zacks research. The larger the company, the more likely it is to pay a dividend.

Less than half. Thus, most stocks do not pay dividends. (This is not even including many "micro-cap" or "nano-cap" stocks below $100 million; given the trend that smaller companies are less likely to pay dividends, including these would bring the average down even more.)

Have you tried writing "return to sender" on it and stuffing it back in the mailbox? (Not that I've tried it...)

the first institution in the world whose contents, with the exception of a few turtles swimming in an artificial pond, are entirely fake.

Can we really afford another CEO President?

And, Ford _did_ blame Firestone for the problem:

"Ford blames all the trouble on the tires.

"This is a tire issue," Nasser said, "and only a tire issue.""

(From http://www.sptimes.com/News/062001/Firestone/Ford_ recall__from_bad.shtml)

When a vendor reports a problem with their product, the public demands as much information on this as possible, particularly when only a percentage of the product is impacted. The public wants to know if they are impacted by the problem, or how such a thing could happen. A simple statement about "we screwed up" and wait for the press to dissect the issue is more what a politician does, then a technology product company. I don't see anything wrong with Apple's statement, particularly because they admit they are more upset at themselves for not anticipating the issue and the root cause of the problem is the trusting nature of the operating system in question.

At the very least, Apple alerted Microsoft customers about the dangers of plugging in a USB storage device, whether its from the factory or because you dragged it around the office after the factory shipment.

Not just abortion, preventing condom distribution, too. This policy is killing people.

Is this you?

In Mexico, bankers may make fraud your problem
by DAVID ADAMS and GINA MANFREDO
St. Petersburg (Florida) Times, June 17, 2006

MEXICO CITY -- One morning last July Alejandro Sanchez got a worried phone call from the branch manager at his bank.

There had been some unusual activity on his account.

"She asked if I had made some transfers," said Sanchez, 46. "She told me not to worry and she would call me back."

A few hours later somber bank officials showed up at his office to advise him that his company accounts, totaling almost $300,000, had been temporarily blocked for security reasons. Sanchez says he was assured it was all "a misunderstanding."

It wasn't until a week later that the bank told him he had been a victim of Internet fraud. All his money was gone.

But the bank still insisted he shouldn't worry. "They said it was being investigated and I would get my money back," said Sanchez, a father of three and the Mexico representative for a large North Carolina electrical engineering firm, Reliance Electric.

But almost a year later Sanchez hasn't seen a cent. And his bank -- Spanish-owned BBVA Bancomer and Latin America's second-largest financial institution -- says he won't get any.

Such is the fate, it seems, of Mexican victims of online bank fraud. Whereas banks in the United States and Europe guarantee the security of client accounts, in Mexico the rules are reversed.

"The banks simply deny any responsibility," said Enrique Arias, director of financial analysis for the National Commission for the Protection and Defense of Financial Service Users, CONDUSEF. "Unfortunately there is a lack of regulation and clients have little recourse."