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Ah. You've been brainwashed like many Americans.
"unsustainable subsidised food burning" - a great tagline.
http://healthandenergy.com/ethanol.htm
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/031128.html (why ADM sucks)

Lighting rods don't necessarily conduct all of the lightning's current. One idea is that they conduct some current and ionize the air around them -- then the bulk of the current flows through that ionized air (just like the ionized air lightning usually flows through). Another theory is that they work to prevent lightning. This is one of those things that has led to much debate.

As soon as I read the headline I thought of the payola scandals of radio in the 50's. Its the same idea with this only instead of the radio, we're talking internet.

I really like Wyden's beliefs on fair competition in the internet. Back in 2004, he put a ban on unfair internet taxes. IMO This legislation looks like it will help out a lot of smaller companies compete with the big corporations who would gladly try to team up with ISPs monopolize e-commerce.

I wonder how this legislation would apply to AOL's proposed email tax (I gotta watch out what I say, my comments on that were met harshly).

I personally hope this makes it through congress. The internet is a free service, as is the radio, and I believe it should have some sense of neutrality. I'm very interested to hear how this bill will hold up. I'm sure if we keep a close eye on it, we'll be finding out a lot about where some of our senators are getting their "funding" from.

Sure if it wasn't for porn i'm sure half the internet traffic would disappear

No, they just made everybody buy the same gadgets all over again. Although, IMHO, for good reasons.

No, they just made everybody buy the same gadgets all over again. Although, IMHO, for good reasons.

it appears that Michael Jackson owns the publishing rights to the lyrics, not the entire songs. assuming this page is still accurate 10 years later: http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a951027.html/

And in case you were wondering what this saying means:
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mhear.html

p.s. The more I learn the more brilliant The Simpsons becomes

A few examples, courtesy of Cecil at The Straight Dope:

AstroTurf, Baggies, Band-Aid, Beer Nuts, Breathalyzer, Brillo Pads, Dacron, Dumpster, Frisbee, Hi-Liter, Hula-Hoop, Jacuzzi, Jeep, Jell-O, Jockey Shorts, Kitty Litter, Kleenex, Laundromat, Liquid Paper, Magic Marker, Muzak, Novocain, Ping-Pong, Play-Doh, Popsicle, Post-it Note, Q-Tip, Realtor, Rollerblade, Scotch Tape, Scrabble, Seeing Eye (dog), Sheetrock, Slim Jim, Styrofoam, Super glue, Technicolor, Teflon, TelePrompTer, Vaseline, Velcro, and Walkman.

From TFA you quoted:

In the U.S. suicide has never been treated as a crime nor punished by property forfeiture or ignominious burial. (Some states listed it on the books as a felony but imposed no penalty.) Curiously, as of 1963, six states still considered attempted suicide a crime--North and South Dakota, Washington, New Jersey, Nevada, and Oklahoma. Of course they didn't take matters as seriously as the Roman emperor Hadrian, who in 117 AD declared attempted suicide by soldiers a form of desertion and made it--no joke this time--a capital offense.

I don't mean to be rude, but really, this was just stupid.

Suicide is legal and only vaguely stigmatized

You are implying suicide is illegal in the US. This is a common misconception.

Cecil Adams wrote a article discussing toxoplama's effect on birth defects and schizophrenia, including the possibility that toxoplasma floods the human brain with LSD.

Interesting that you should post here with that username, because at least according to a straight dope article, Toxoplasma produces LSD.

No they didn't.

WTF ???

You jerk ... hope you are happy convincing all the mindless freaks.

Fact is, there was a plan to do this. And small pox later broke out where they targetted. There are no photos of the actual handover obviously .. what do you expect?

Provide some evidence to support your view. Evidence-less assertions may work if you are a talk radio host or post on freerepublic.com.

Fact is the native americans got screwed, and their land/inheritance stolen. No amount of trying to convince oneself otherwise will chnge reality. Ironically the USA supports the Israelis getting their ancestral homeland from the Palestinians.. yet native americans can forget getting their ancestral home back. Sad but true.

The evidence is overwhelming to support the view of blankets being used to spread smallpox... do some god damn googling.

http://www.somsd.k12.nj.us/~chssocst/ssgavittus1am herstsmallpox.htm

From straightdope.com: http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_066.html

Lord Jeffrey Amherst, commander of British forces in North America during the French and Indian War (1756-'63). Amherst and a subordinate discussed, apparently seriously, sending infected blankets to hostile tribes. What's more, we've got the documents to prove it, thanks to the enterprising research of Peter d'Errico, legal studies professor at the University of Massachusetts at (fittingly) Amherst. D'Errico slogged through hundreds of reels of microfilmed correspondence looking for the smoking gun, and he found it.

The exchange took place during Pontiac's Rebellion, which broke out after the war, in 1763. Forces led by Pontiac, a chief of the Ottawa who had been allied with the French, laid siege to the English at Fort Pitt.

According to historian Francis Parkman, Amherst first raised the possibility of giving the Indians infected blankets in a letter to Colonel Henry Bouquet, who would lead reinforcements to Fort Pitt. No copy of this letter has come to light, but we do know that Bouquet discussed the matter in a postscript to a letter to Amherst on July 13, 1763:

P.S. I will try to inocculate the Indians by means of Blankets that may fall in their hands, taking care however not to get the disease myself. As it is pity to oppose good men against them, I wish we could make use of the Spaniard's Method, and hunt them with English Dogs. Supported by Rangers, and some Light Horse, who would I think effectively extirpate or remove that Vermine.

On July 16 Amherst replied, also in a postscript:

P.S. You will Do well to try to Innoculate the Indians by means of Blanketts, as well as to try Every other method that can serve to Extirpate this Execrable Race. I should be very glad your Scheme for Hunting them Down by Dogs could take Effect, but England is at too great a Distance to think of that at present.

On July 26 Bouquet wrote back:

I received yesterday your Excellency's letters of 16th with their Inclosures. The signal for Indian Messengers, and all your directions will be observed.

We don't know if Bouquet actually put the plan into effect, or if so with what result. We do know that a supply of smallpox-infected blankets was available, since the disease had broken out at Fort Pitt some weeks previously. We also know that the following spring smallpox was reported to be raging among the Indians in the vicinity.

To modern ears, this talk about infecting the natives with smallpox, hunting them down with dogs, etc., sounds over the top. But it's easy to believe Amherst and company were serious. D'Errico provides other quotes from Amherst's correspondence that suggest he considered Native Americans subhumans who ought to be exterminated. Check out his research for yourself at www.nativeweb.org/pages/l egal/amherst/lord_jeff.html. He not only includes transcriptions but also reproduces the relevant parts of the incriminating letters.

Indeed, while Columbus was attempting to find a new route to India he accidentally discovered the clitoris.

Highschool flunky here, that has an intuitive, but apparently mostly useless understanding of basic physics.

If I hadn't commented in this thread already I'd give you modpoints. It works the same way with anorexics as with obesity: there's probably nothing you or anyone else can tell a person that'll fix it. As one of my friends says, "you can't ever change people, you can only make them secretive and neurotic." Telling someone who is morbidly obese -- or in my case, for several years, deathly skinny -- to "just stop being stupid about food" is akin to telling a schizophrenic to "just stop hearing all those voices". And, hey, nice segue, did anyone else read about how toxoplasmosis infections may cause schizophrenia? If a disease can cause something that life-altering, it's not too difficult to believe a virus might change a person's metabolism by 50 calories a day (which is all you need to gain several pounds a year, leading, in ten years, to big problems.)

This is a myth.

I found this link very interesting. IMHO, Latin should be taught at public schools.

Not sure if the US still does have such a contingency plan on file, but they certainly did in the early 20th century. It was called War Plan Red, a scenario for global war between the United States and the British Empire.

This reminds me of the crackpot theory that you don't have to pay income tax because the 16th amendment wasn't properly ratified.

Elements of yesterdays and todays pennies: http://www.carolina.com/chemistry/experiments/penn yskins.asp Actually, this experiment sounds pretty cool. In searching to find the make up of a penny, I came across another article on the cost to produce pennies in the US and the imminent doom (kidding) of the lack of copper may be a reason to revisit: http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a981009a.html

Hear! Hear!

Or should that be "Here! Here!"?

I read about this in The Straight Dope ten or fifteen years ago. The Cal Tech folks seem to have added some new nuances to the discussion, but it was adequately understood long before this. The full story evidently goes back to the 1930s.

Nothin to see here, folks, move along.

Trust me, everyone that experiences both (a) a hurricane and (b) a Florida tropical thunderstorm--which is to say, most of the population of the state--is immediately aware of absence of thunder and lightning in hurricanes. You don't need scientific instruments to identify the presence or absence of a phenomenon that causes the family dog (and the occasional owner) to run and hide under the bed almost every summer afternoon, quivering from the sound of thunderclaps.

It's well known folk wisdom that hurricanes usually don't produce lightning. The fact that these three did is what makes it interesting.

(c.f. the rarity of lightning in snowstorms--a.k.a. thundersnow.)

"Rather than being critics who add to the industry as film and music journalists arguably did back in the heady days of the 50's - 70's"

If you dig deep enough in your history books, you'll find all kinds of examples of this behavior -- even through the "heady days of the 50's - 70's." I'm not saying this is good, but I am saying that this is neither new or shocking. As such, I don't see why this is news-worthy.

Enough do that the Straight Dope debunked it here.

It reminds me of a classic true story from my home country: When the Empress of Austria asked her staff why people are unhappy

Here is a fairly good explination of several different theories of the all seeing eye, including both Joseph Campbell and Illuminati.

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_022.html

Didn't the brownshirts shout down and harrass anyone that had an opinion different than their own? Isn't that what happens to any conservative speaker who visits a college campus these days?

So until we have forced labor camps and we're filling gas chambers daily, I suggest you rethink your position and keep your mouth shut.

If you really, truely and honestly feel that GWB is as dangerous as Hitler and worse than Bin Laden, why are you sitting on your ass behind a keyboard? If you were in 1938 Germany, wouldn't it be your duty to pick up a rifle and fight the Nazis? So, go ahead, join what's left of the Taliban if that is what your truly belive.

I did some Googling, but was unable to find number for when abortions occur; I imagine that they probably are in the first three months, although first six weeks seems a bit early--a mother probably wouldn't know she's pregnant until at least four weeks in. And by week six there's already a heart, brain, arms & legs (acc. to Wikipedia, so take that for what it's worth)...

Re. circumcision, it does reduce the risk of penile cancer; out of 60,000 cases of penile cancer since 1930, less than ten involved circumcised men. Moreover, sexual partners of uncircumcised men are more likely to contract cervical cancer.

I did some Googling, but was unable to find number for when abortions occur; I imagine that they probably are in the first three months, although first six weeks seems a bit early--a mother probably wouldn't know she's pregnant until at least four weeks in. And by week six there's already a heart, brain, arms & legs (acc. to Wikipedia, so take that for what it's worth)...

Re. circumcision, it does reduce the risk of penile cancer; out of 60,000 cases of penile cancer since 1930, less than ten involved circumcised men. Moreover, sexual partners of uncircumcised men are more likely to contract cervical cancer.

Wow, an urban legend that I had assumed was true. Thanks for the enlightenment.

Link here: http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_248.html for your future reference and mine.

Actually, QWERTY wasn't designed around the formation of words in the english language. It's quite the opposite. QWERTY was designed to be easy on the typwriter, not the typist. See http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_248.html.

Please stop repeating this myth. QWERTY was not "designed to slow typists down" - some of the early speed-typing competitions were won with QWERTY.

That's nothing more than a myth.

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_248.html

It was done to "making jamming mechanically less likely", by placing the most used combinations of letters away from each other. Some argue that this actually makes it faster and not slower to use.

Common misconception that the QWERTY layout was to slow down typists. It's simply not true. They were laid out this way to put commonly used letters far apart, to help reduce jams.

http://home.earthlink.net/~dcrehr/myths.html
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_248.html

not as insane as sailing here and landing an invasion force in 'Frisco bay would be.

Please note that "less insane" does not mean "sane" or "feasible".

Remember these are the same people who built the only manmade stucture visible from Earth orbit.

No, they're not.

When the Chinese put their collective wills to doing something it get done, it's just a matter of which millenium, that's all.

Okay, sure. In some millenium where no other world powers have any naval or air power to speak of, no recon satellites, and a century of global warming has made the northernmost latitudes much more temperate (without simultaneously submerging the land bridge and/or melting away the ice bridge), the Chinese could collectively succeed with such an invasion plan. My point wasn't that it couldn't be done, just that even if they did everything right, the operation would be so resource-intensive, and have so many points of catastrophic failure, that it would be doomed anyway (unless no world power opposed it and the arctic was much more hospitable than it currently is, as I mentioned above).

I mean, the majority of their forces would be occupied with logistics--transporting supplies to the invasion force. And the entire force would be strung out across thousands of miles of inhospitable wasteland. And anybody along the way could break the chain just by focusing a small fraction of their forces on it. Have you ever looked at a map of the region? Have you ever noticed how far they'd have to march, just to get out of Russian territory? Have you ever wondered how they'd defend their homeland, after sending all of their fighting people on a death march through Siberia?

I hope the Canadians do get them hooked on beer, it'll make them wish they never came to the United States.

Sadly, I don't think it would work out that way. Last time I checked, both Canada and the U.S. have large Chinese populations, who seem happy to be here in spite of our taste in beer (terrible though it may be).

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a961129.html

Niggard

Choice quote: "Howard was pressured to resign by people who, as columnist Tony Snow put it, "actually demanded that he apologize for their ignorance."

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_065.html been hashed out at the straight dope for a while now..

Cecil is always timely source of insight.

Snopes has an altogether noticable political bias and a sloppy regard for the rules of evidence. Hell, they've been outright worng before. Get back to me when Uncle Cecil weighs in.

they already did the buttered toast falls butter side down myth, and it was busted

Just curious, as I've never seen the show; how was it busted? I've seen numerous articles which appear plausable and well researched, showing that toast, when falling from table height, has enough time to rotate to butter-side-down, but not enough to rotate back to butter-side-up.

> Seriously. The Prisoner is a classic.

Agreed! The Prisoner (minus the last two incomprehensible and silly episodes) was an incredible show. I remember it came on one night late on PBS (after Red Dwarf), and I recognized it from the description on The Straight Dope.

We were all set to make fun of it (hey, look! a campy 1960s era show!), but we quickly became engrossed in the plot (it was one of the better episodes -- The Schizoid Man). I was actually quite surprised how much I enjoyed it.

I ended up buying the A&E boxed set, and I was amazed at McGoohan's understanding of how society tries to mold its citizens. Plus the whole "spy versus spy" part was an intriguing bonus (particularly "Hammer and Anvil").

This is a show that doesn't need to be remade. Today, they'd have to cut it in half, make Number 6 run around shooting people with a machine gun, and have a hooter babe leading woman.

US notches world's highest incarceration rate

Does the United States lead the world in prison population?

actually, one of the sibling posts disagrees: Straight Dope

When oh when will people learn to check the straight dope?

If an attempt can be made to legislate pi to be rational, why not redefine science? Oh yeah, because the pi thing happened in the 19th century and this is the 21st?

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_341.html