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...surveillance complex.

There have been many cases where, as one defense attorney put it, the "plots" were 'written, directed and produced by the FBI'. As in FBI undercover agents or paid informants will actively encourage people to Do Shit who would otherwise be no more troublesome than your average online malcontent. The agent/informant will, of course, try to get the "perps" to say to hidden microphones that they are acting of their own free will, or even make statements on video, so the defendants can't use entrapment as a defense.

A defense attorney said that?? You don't say?

I think it's you who is overreacting

Or, maybe he's not.

...surveillance complex.

There have been many cases where, as one defense attorney put it, the "plots" were 'written, directed and produced by the FBI'. As in FBI undercover agents or paid informants will actively encourage people to Do Shit who would otherwise be no more troublesome than your average online malcontent. The agent/informant will, of course, try to get the "perps" to say to hidden microphones that they are acting of their own free will, or even make statements on video, so the defendants can't use entrapment as a defense.

I question the claim that these parents are being protective of their children. I think they are doing nothing more than being bad parents by avoiding difficult but important conversations with their children.

I am reminded of the fact that people who never learn to swim are much more likely to drown. You might think that they don't know how to swim, and so they will stay out of the water and be safer that way. The real world doesn't work that way.

You should also be reminded of the fact that the kids educated about drugs by programs like D.A.R.E. are more likely to actually do drugs than those not educated on the subject (source http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,99564,00.html ). My point there is your analogy is not correct in every situation, and I believe this is one of those. These people are being good parents, rather than negligently exposing their children to materials that their children may not be mentally developed enough to understand. Maybe you'll let your small children read things like this, heck you might even get them a subscription to penthouse and a copy of the anarchist's cookbook for their fifth birthday, but I applaud the parents for their well placed concern.

Knowledge and technology are all well and good, except when used for evil or to sell advertising, I guess...

A Solar Storm Strikes Earthâ"and Provides a Warning for the Future

New Forecast: Sun's 'Superstorms' Could Doom Satellites

Could The Sun Set Off The Next Big Natural Disaster?

PS: The sun will go supernova in the near future. Please panic accordingly. :-)

> - We [Italy] spent a shitload of money to build a tunnel to make science happen, GOOD JOB US!!
> I'm missing why Italy's contribution to CERN is worth 50% of that press release.

I agree.

What is missing is that the Italian economy is in a $#!+|0@& of trouble (but it's fixable), and this neutrino media release seems to make spending $#!+|0@&$ more into a virtue.

Quantitative proof or GTFO.

Well, I'll take a shot at it. Please excuse me if I miss a decimal point somewhere, corrections are welcome.

About 14g of material in a Primatene Mist Inhaler. Non-propellant mass is ascorbic acid, dehydrated alcohol (34%), hydrochloric acid, nitric acid, purified water (actual mass of drug is negligible). Don't know the breakdown, but guesstimating about 4g of CFC-12 and CFC-114 propellant per inhaler, since alcohol is ~1/3 mass, and ascorbic acid is listed before the alcohol (ingredients should be listed in order of descending weight, so at least 1/3 ascorbic acid).

In one of the recent news interviews about this, FDA spokesman estimated 1-2 million Primatene Mist users out there. Let's say 12 vials per year * 2mil users (I don't really know how many vials an asthmatic goes through), and call it 20 million vials. That would be 24,000kg of CFCs per year, or 24 metric tons.

For reference, reported peak production of CFC-12 was reached in 1988, at 421,002 metric tons (1000kg in a metric ton), and 8,938 metric tons in 2004 (last reported year). So total usage is not tiny, but still a small fraction of the overall CFC usage.

Nearest Time cover to the one you linked is April 11th 1977 and features air travel safety concerns. http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19770411,00.html

For the date of the article you linked to (24th 1974) the Times cover features Nixon in a cavalcade in Egypt. So neither case has this "how to survive blah blah" going on.

http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19740624,00.html

Kudos on remembering the article though. It is rather dwarfed by the story of Nixons travels to Syria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel. Frankly the Nixon story is a much better read. I'm born in 1980 so I am way too young for this stuff but man that takes some guts landing in Syria after the October war. Apparently they had a run in with Russian jets! Evasive maneuvers were taken! haha. I can see why the USA was so into this cold war deal, it makes for good stories. Anyways this is smack dab in the middle of Nixons Watergate scandal and was hardly news by comparison, though the alarmist tone has some parallels worth considering. I think this is more appropriate as a case study for how the media can not properly represent climate science as opposed to a "the scientists are wrong now" argument.

Nearest Time cover to the one you linked is April 11th 1977 and features air travel safety concerns. http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19770411,00.html

For the date of the article you linked to (24th 1974) the Times cover features Nixon in a cavalcade in Egypt. So neither case has this "how to survive blah blah" going on.

http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19740624,00.html

Kudos on remembering the article though. It is rather dwarfed by the story of Nixons travels to Syria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel. Frankly the Nixon story is a much better read. I'm born in 1980 so I am way too young for this stuff but man that takes some guts landing in Syria after the October war. Apparently they had a run in with Russian jets! Evasive maneuvers were taken! haha. I can see why the USA was so into this cold war deal, it makes for good stories. Anyways this is smack dab in the middle of Nixons Watergate scandal and was hardly news by comparison, though the alarmist tone has some parallels worth considering. I think this is more appropriate as a case study for how the media can not properly represent climate science as opposed to a "the scientists are wrong now" argument.

Remember when the next Ice Age was the big concern?

No I don't.

I do, and so do many others. You don't, but... that's ok. It was overly-sensationalized then, even if there were legitimate reasons for concern. Much like AGW today.

I certainly remember it.

Soon, people will get bored with austerity, and spend. The question is can they wait another 14 long months?

Looks like it was too much to bear. People have been charging up a storm this year.

They should just use Detroit: it's already built, it's realistic and it's a lot larger than a 35,000 inhabitant city.

(5) Is of no interest to thieves;
I used to leave my car windows down every where I went despite having expensive text books pilled in the seat. It is cheaper to replace a stereo than a window. Anyway, you are correct. Thieve just seem to have no interest in books.

(6) Has never transformed overnight into several hundred blank pages of paper because of some corporate decision somewhere;
I'm waiting for black rectangles to start showing up on ebooks in some southern states. Most people find that ludicrous but if the novel is one that is used in a classroom I could see it happening. The Textbook Wars

Fun fact, it turns out her kid isn't actually autistic.

Does appearing on a TIME cover count? If not, how about being named one of PEOPLE's "hottest bachelors"? :-)

I'll just leave this here too. Weed induces paranoia, you know.
http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1658545_1658544_1658535,00.html

Here's the first hit off google talking about the first human case this year in Santa Fe. A week in the hospital - Could be worse.
http://healthland.time.com/2011/05/10/first-case-of-bubonic-plague-in-2011-appears-in-new-mexico/

Had we taken heed 30 years ago and done something about it, the cost would have been substantially lower and ultimately if we were wrong it would be dirt cheap to go back to our old ways

You mean 30 years ago exactly, or 37 years ago when the problem was global cooling and we were headed for another ice age?

However widely the weather varies from place to place and time to time, when meteorologists take an average of temperatures around the globe they find that the atmosphere has been growing gradually cooler for the past three decades. The trend shows no indication of reversing. Climatological Cassandras are becoming increasingly apprehensive, for the weather aberrations they are studying may be the harbinger of another ice age.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,944914,00.html#ixzz1W4hnyeK8

Though the capacity is rather small, I wonder if the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle could carry critical supplies to the ISS? It's designed for quick turn-around and maneuverability. Would have to spacewalk for those supplies, though. No docking system on OTV that I know of.

HP's Eric Cador said, "In the tablet world, we're going to become better than number one. We call it number one plus."

From "number one plus", to "number two, flush" in three months.

He was just rambling on as if a cure was impossible, when there's a natural immunity and drug cocktails which make the disease livable. But IIRC, the gene that causes immunity to HIV was isolated recently- I'm thinking it causes receptors that HIV binds to on the white blood cell to not emerge above the surface. Interestingly enough, though, bone marrow transplants may be enough. I've read of something last year where a Leukemia patient, also suffering from HIV, got a bone marrow transplant from someone that was immune. After a while, he showed no signs of the virus. If bone marrow transplant safety could be improved, and the marrow cells grown rather than extracted, it could be a viable cure. Of course, it just said he had an HIV infection- nothing about full blown AIDS. Still, at worst it would prevent a person from being totally immunocompromised.

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1858843,00.html

You wouldn't want to use an immunosuppressant, which just modify immune system without killing the cells. High dose chemo would wipe your immune system though, and then you could reconstruct it using stem cells, either harvested from the patient before hand, or donated. I'm working on a trial that does just that, except for multiple sclerosis, but here's a story about someone trying out the idea on HIV: http://healthland.time.com/2011/06/02/should-we-be-trying-harder-to-find-a-cure-for-aids/

From the story it seems that HIV can remain in a non-immune reservoir somewhere in the body though, so you want to use stem cells from someone with a natural immunity.

And in the US. The Pentagon has budgeted $42M for the expressed purposes of monitoring and influencing social media for the following:
"1. Detect, classify, measure and track the (a) formation, development and spread of ideas and concepts (memes), and
(b) purposeful or deceptive messaging and misinformation.
2. Recognize persuasion campaign structures and influence operations across social mediasites and communities.
3. Identify participants and intent, and measure effects of persuasion campaigns.
4. Counter messaging of detected adversary influence operations."

I submitted this story last week, apparently India's privacy is a big deal but not so much for the "land of the free".

And because a 22,400-lb axle load causes 6.4 times as much road cracking as an 18,000-lb load, making truckers pay their fair share of the road wear would encourage them to haul lighter loads to save money. In the end, it would save us all money.

Please explain more carefully how using more trucks and truckers to haul the same amount of goods would save us all money. I get the part about decreased road damage, but I'm thinking increased wages, gas, and other externalized costs of increased traffic might substantially outweigh those savings.

Extending your logic, the tax bill on an 80,000 lb 18-wheeler that hauls food to your local grocery would be 2.56 million times the taxes paid on a 2,000 lb car.

I oversimplified a little. Road wear is actually proportional to the 4th power of the axle loading, and tire size also comes into play. In the end, a 40-ton truck does as much damage to the road as (only) 9,600 cars.

And because a 22,400-lb axle load causes 6.4 times as much road cracking as an 18,000-lb load, making truckers pay their fair share of the road wear would encourage them to haul lighter loads to save money. In the end, it would save us all money.

Rust no, but oxidize yes.

Yes. Also 54 seemed kinda high so I looked into it and it looks like CAFE still uses outdated MPG ratings which are different from what goes on the current EPA sticker rating. Turns out the way they are rating MPG for CAFE standards is about 20% over current consumer EPA ratings.

So while CAFE will be 54mpg, for the rating system consumers see will probably be closer to 54 * 0.80 = 43mpg.

In my opinion, the current EPA rating is still a little optimistic so real world drivers will probably only see 35-40mpg with current driving habits.

I agree with reading about it on the Internet. I like RSS, but I've found it homogenizes my content so that things don't jump out at me and the really interesting stories get buried with all the mediocre ones. So I keep the following list of bookmarks to check on a weekly basis:

ABC (Australia) Science, ABC (US) Science, Air & Space Magazine, ARKive, Ars Technica, BBC SciTech News, CBS Sci-Tech News, Chet Raymo, Cosmos News, Current: Science, Discover, Discovery News, Edge, Economist Science, EurekAlert!, Flyp media, Futurity, h+, Inkling Magazine, LiveScience, Massimo Pigliucci, Mother Jones Environment, MSNBC Science News, National Geographic News, National Public Radio (US), Natural History Magazine, New Scientist, New York Times Science, New Yorker Science, Newsweek Science, Orion, PhysOrg, Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, R&D Magazine, Ripley's Believe It or Not!, Science Daily, Scientific American, Seed Magazine, Science Cheerleader, Science News, Schrodinger's Kitten, Slashdot Science, Smithsonian, Space.com, The Technium, Time Magazine Science, USA Today Science, US News & World Report Science, Wired News, World Changing

As Obama has suggested, kicking the can down the road for 6 months and then going through this all over again, and again after that, does not bode well for future investment in the country.

Oddly enough, when Obama says this he is trying to support his own threat to veto a 6-month debt limit increase. In other words, he too is threatening to force a default on the debt unless he gets what he wants. Doesn't sound so sensible to me. Republican, Democrat -- they're all trying to outclass each other in new heights of idiocy.

Well thankfully, Google wasn't run by MBA graduates

Because value-added models can control for other factors impacting student test scores, the most important being whether a student arrived in a teacher's classroom several grade levels behind, this method of analysis can offer a more accurate estimate of how well a particular teacher is teaching than simply looking at the latest set of student test scores. (source)

Once we have an accurate assessment of each teacher, we could pay them accordingly and/or let the poorly performing teachers go.

Margaret Hamburg?

Physician, public health administrator, seems decently qualified. What exactly is your issue with her?

according to an interview with an kidnapping negotiator one of the main reasons for the Somalis becoming pirates is overfishing - most of the economy crashed because they cannot compete with the sophisticated trawler fleet. A FAO paper claims that illegal foreign ships are one of the main reasons for the depletion of maritime resources.

Without a government and while illegal fishing is profitable (pirating started with selling bogus fishing licenses to foreign ships, see here) the problems cannot solved; one proposal was an export embargo but this wasn't successful in the UN security council.

The "civil war" is largely a creation of foreign and now AFRICOM interference.

http://webarchive.ssrc.org/Somalia_Hoehne_v10.pdf

"Thanks to half a century of pouring US arms stockpiles into Africa, the price of an assault rifle in Africa has for some time been cheaper than anyplace else on the planet."

http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/africom-americas-military-foot-africas-doorway

Somali "piracy" is the outcome of the illegal, exhaustive, industrialised over-fishing of Somali waters, by foreign fleets - leaving the coastal towns without any livelihood.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/you-are-being-lied-to-abo_b_155147.html

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/4/14/analysis_somalia_piracy_began_in_response

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1892376,00.html

The US manufactures foreign wars and "terrorists" the same way it used to lead in the creation of Automobiles and heavy manufacturing. But remember your Gibbon: The decline of Rome was seeded from its very rise on world's stage.

Mao and Stalin killed in the millions. Religious wars killed in the thousands. Even when you count all those years it does not add up to as many people.

You miss two important points:

• 1. The killings by Mao and Stalin were not motivated by atheism. Your argument that because they were atheists - then the killings must be caused by atheism - is the same as saying that if a Christian commits murder - then the murder must have been carried out because of Christianity. Or because George W. Bush is a Christian, then killings carried out due to his orders are Christian. Clearly this is incorrect logic. Having a leader who professes to be religious or atheist does not mean that the results of their actions are caused by that religion or atheism. In the cases of Mao and Stalin, revolutionary Marxism might be a more appropriate belief system to blame.
• 2. You underestimate the number of people killed in religious wars. In the Cathar Crusade alone, where the Catholic Church waged holy war against one single Christian sect, it is estimated that one million people were killed. The entire population of Béziers - 60,000 men women and children, were murdered once the city fell to the Church's forces. That is just one city, in a few days - a drop in history. The book "Encyclopedia of Wars" finds that 7% of wars involve religious conflict. That is a lot more killing than "in the thousands".

Even the TSA workers aren't too happy about the possibility of getting cancer from the scanners.

http://healthland.time.com/2011/06/30/did-airport-scanners-give-boston-tsa-agents-cancer/

Alright, now how do they feel about groping kids? This is important.

Even the TSA workers aren't too happy about the possibility of getting cancer from the scanners.

http://healthland.time.com/2011/06/30/did-airport-scanners-give-boston-tsa-agents-cancer/

There. Somebody had to state that, but in this case there is actual evidence behind it..

I've been reading about this correlation for years. But the fact is that nobody has shown a causative effect. In fact some studies have very strongly suggested otherwise.

For example, where bans on cell phone use have gone into effect, studies have shown that the accidents rates did not go down. Further, in those areas where the laws were later repealed, accident rates did not then go up. (Notice also that with all this news of 25% of accidents being caused by cell phones, nobody is reporting that total accident rates are up by 25% since cell phones have become popular.)

So, the actual explanation is likely to be a separate primary cause, something like this: people who already tend to be distracted drivers, tend to be talking on their cell phones when they get into accidents. But if they weren't talking on their cell phones, they'd be doing something else to distract themselves and still get into accidents. (We know that because the studies show that they do... accident rates do not go down.)

Further yet, a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that holding a cell phone up to your ear is no worse than using hands-free devices, when it comes to distracted driving. So all these laws against holding a phone to your ear but allowing hands-free devices are completely worthless, and therefore bad laws.

Yet another study showed that laws banning texting can actually increase accidents because people continue to text, but put the phones in their laps to do it so they don't get caught.

I agree, Nuclear is much safer than coal where people die everyday from mining operations and many more are injured. It would be sad to see more countries eliminate their nuclear power because of the Fukushima disaster. "Officially, about 5,000 of his fellow workers died in mining accidents last year. Unofficially, nobody knows how many were killed. In the space of a single week late last year, gas explosions and accidents in four mines left nearly 100 miners dead." Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1595235,00.html#ixzz1RX3hPODE

Paul Ceglia: The Man Who Owns 84% of Facebook? link

"Ceglia sifting through old files in his western New York home to find assets to pay back his clientele. He says he came across a document signed in 2003 by Mark Zuckerberg, then a freshman at Harvard and now chief executive of Facebook. He says the document is a valid contract that entitles him to an 84 percent stake in Facebook"

"Mr. Ceglia's high-profile representation .. recently withdrew from the case at a critical juncture .. Mr. Ceglia is carrying on with a small, boutique-y firm of four San Diego-based attorneys who, according to CNET, represent 200 medical marijuana collectives. link

Better watch out then as if you win then these two will come suing your ass off Winklevoss Twins Resume Facebook Attack..

Paul Ceglia: The Man Who Owns 84% of Facebook? link

"Ceglia sifting through old files in his western New York home to find assets to pay back his clientele. He says he came across a document signed in 2003 by Mark Zuckerberg, then a freshman at Harvard and now chief executive of Facebook. He says the document is a valid contract that entitles him to an 84 percent stake in Facebook"

"Mr. Ceglia's high-profile representation .. recently withdrew from the case at a critical juncture .. Mr. Ceglia is carrying on with a small, boutique-y firm of four San Diego-based attorneys who, according to CNET, represent 200 medical marijuana collectives. link

Better watch out then as if you win then these two will come suing your ass off Winklevoss Twins Resume Facebook Attack..

> I saw this one Nokia phone that had a feature that Apple didn't come up with, which was to make the whole display a button that was clickable, so touching was one kind of input, and that was separate from clicking. I thought that was pretty cool.

BlackBerry Storm: The Novelty Wears Off Fast
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1860717,00.html

the first smartphone with a clickable touchscreen. I even enjoyed the few minutes I spent playing ...
But after 24 hours of actually testing the new BlackBerry side by side with its main competition ... the novelty quickly wore off. I hate the click screen, and none of the handful of people I let try it had anything nice to say about it either.

....so now facebook is big enough to buy judges. And the reign of the corporate overlords continues. *yawn*

As much as I dislike Zuckerberg, in this case it sounds like this guy is a total scam artist. Facebook hired a linguistics expert to compare the E-mails Ceglia claims prove his case against known E-mails written by Zuckerberg during the same time period. The results are not encouraging for Ceglia, and are quite convincing. There's some significant differences in writing style, and there's well established research that writing styles are mostly fixed, people write the same way routinely unless deliberately trying to do otherwise. You'd have to believe that Zuckerberg deliberately wrote differently in the Ceglia E-mails, something which is very hard to buy into. After that his lawyers resigned on him, a very, very bad sign for him. Sounds like the judge concurs, he's not buying it either.

If you are still confused, there's an entire article about this... Supreme Double Standard: If Violent Video Games Are Free Speech, Why Aren't Sexual Images?

It seems I'm not the only one who well understands the problem, just someone who apparently isn't as good as explaining it...

Marijuana usage isn't 100% safe. It can cause or speed up the development of schizophrenia:
http://www.livescience.com/10700-marijuana-worsens-schizophrenia.html.
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2005559,00.html

I still agree with you that it should be legalized. The war on drugs is a lost cause, and causes more problems than in solves. But making false claims doesn't help in this discussion.
Personally, I think marijuana should be treated like tobacco: just sell it legally, put a warning on it about the health hazards, and tax it to pay for the resulting medical costs.

I can't explain this any more to you.

If you want to understand this issue, you have to put aside your preconceptions and do some reading in reliable sources like the NEJM.

Like most conservatives today, you don't seem to be willing to do that.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2077943,00.html

It's funny that you mention healthcare as an example of "unbridled capitalism." Even in America:

• Healthcare is highly regulated. (You must treat anyone who presents at the ER, your legal medical record must contain these items, we will pay for this procedure only for a patient with this diagnosis, etc.)
• The government is one of the largest and most important payors. Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements quite literally dictate prices hospitals are allowed to charge.
• Consumers have no incentive to "shop around." Insurance either covers a procedure or it doesn't, and then often only at "in-network" hospitals. No one is getting price quotes on open heart surgery.

However, the prices of elective procedures like LASIK and plastic surgery are dropping. These are not covered by private insurance or Medicare, and the patient can reasonably choose to forego them. As a result, the patient can pick any surgeon he wishes and has an incentive to get the best price (in addition to best expected outcome.)

TL;DR - our current healthcare system doesn't even remotely resemble "unbridled capitalism." The parts that do (elective procedures) actually work reasonably well.

What's with all these specs? That keep ending in question marks? And don't form complete sentences? And aren't even questions? But end with question marks anyway?

On the other hand, we have historical precedents for what happens when drugs like cocaine (or worse heroine) are legalized.

We sure do.

That was not a good idea.

The War on Drugs is not a good idea. It has resulted in billions of wasted Dollars, millions of incarcerations, tens of thousands of deaths, and a huge crime spree. Which is an entirely predictable result. Just look at all the warring going on among the wine and beer cartels.

And this doesn't even account for the healthcare denied to addicts because of the legal stigma. That's perhaps the most unconscionable part.

I personally think that the country would be a better place if we could stop using all of these substances, however, we have already tried prohibition of alcohol and it proved unworkable.

100% agree on both counts.

Oh, I don't know. Maybe he was just going on idle speculation.

Or just maybe some of us aren't politically correct enough to ignore the simple fact that it wouldn't be the first time the PRC (got caught) made a cover up for something that would be global news.