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I won't be surprised if 14 is the minimal legal age to be sent to the electric chair.

Actually, so far the youngest person on death row in America was sixteen (Shareef Cousin). Cousin would have been executed by the Great State of Louisiana by now, except for the small problem that he's innocent. After spending four years on death row, the conviction was finally overturned. Yay, justice.

Here's the last words of seventeen year-old Joseph John Cannon (executed by the State of Texas). Another interesting fact: 1 in 9 people on death row were under the age of 19 at the time of arrest (source: Bureau of Justice).

Here's a Time Magazine article on the Kids of Death Row. According to the article, previous Republican Governor of California Pete Wilson suggested that 14-year-olds should be eligible for the death penalty. So your initial statement isn't too far off the charts.

If you believe that then you really need to re-read the Bill of Rights.

Or check out the following...

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,159 8007,00.html?xid=rss-nation

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2312508445 846864220&q=gun+control+penn+and+teller&hl=en

Suburban living is not completely to blame for the obesity issues in the U.S. today. I don't know where you live, but when I was a kid I and dozens of other classmates walked to and from home from school. A mile and a half each way is nice exercise, especially for an elementary school student. Assuming conditions permit it, kids should walk to learn to walk to if only for a short time school.

There are no sidewalks in my suburban neighborhood, curvy roads, and a 45 mph speed limit which is frequently exceeded by local drivers. Forgive me for being overprotective, but I'm not letting my kids walk in that.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1 376208,00.html (Of course there are lies, damn lies, and statistics) In a 1984 survey of 2900 kids, homework time was up 51% since 1981.

Obviously if you really want to save money, it's price shopping. But a frozen pizza that can feed 3 hungry people for $5 isn't bad. You can do better on money with health food, but the healthier food takes longer to prepare.

Willpower isn't the whole problem in a vacuum. If 30% more of the US population is obese today than it was 70 years ago, 90 million people didn't all collectively decide to stop eating right and start eating wrong. (Of course, 70 years ago the US population was smaller than 300 million. But you get the point.) Immigrants that move to the US have a higher chance of becoming obese and people moving from the US to other countries with different lifestyles have a higher chance of becoming thin. Willpower is the solution on an individual level, but it's not the entire problem or the solution for the whole culture. You aren't going to convince even half of the growing population of obese in the world to just eat less and move more.

Because Clinton is supposed to be a 'progressive' and we know progressive people just get blow jobs, they're never sexual predators who use power relationships to victimize the women beneath them.

Heck, if you think that's bad, wait for this one - they were actually arguing about just switching to DST permanently, but the cows were against it. (Search for "cow") Heck, there's a lot of "cow" arguments against DST.

U.S. Soldiers Force Reporters To Delete Photos of Casualties --- Meanwhile the U.S. military is being accused of trying to cover up the civilian deaths. A freelance photographer working for the Associated Press said he took photos of a vehicle where three Afghans had been shot to death inside. An American soldier then took the photographer's camera and deleted the photos. A reporter for Afghanistan's largest television station, Tolo TV, said a US soldier also forced him to delete footage. The soldier reportedly told the journalist "Delete them, or we will delete you."

I can't speak to the no vapor, but craft that make urine dumps in space produce, well, urine crystals. One source.

This is nothing new. Almost 10 years ago MS was going to completely step away and that would have killed Apple, but they didn't: http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,1101970818 ,00.html . In many ways, MS has given Apple ten years to get its shit together from a MS perspective (ie. be a worthwhile platform for MS to support) but has this really happened?

People who dislike China tend to mention Tiananmen Square a lot, but they always forget the Tank Man is also a Chinese.

Some who like China also talk of Tiananmen Square, as well as how 2 million Nationists Chinese led by Chiang Kai-shek invaded and subjegated 20 million on the island called Formosa, meaning "beautiful island", by the Portuguese but now called Taiwan. After the invasion Formosans had their own version of the Holocaust, 28 February 1947, which led to the massive slaughter of thousands of Taiwanese at the hands of Chiang Kai-shek's Chinese troops. Both sides in China have a bloody history.

Also, did you know Mao and Chiang and got started in the same political party? They both were members of Sun Yat-sen's Nationalist Party. They were also related by marriage to each other. Both married daughters of the Soong family.

June 28, 1969 called. It wants its misinformed homophobia back.

You gotta explain this comment dude, what is homophobic about the comment? What's June 28 1969?

Okay Google tells me about the date: http://www.time.com/time/80days/690628.html

Soooo.. where's the homophobia?

Well, if you go with the premise that you have enough information to determine that there's nothing shady going on then it's a foregone conclusion. But you don't have that information, and I don't have that information. All we have are selective leaks from "security sources" about the case. On his own admission Carpenter performed the followining unethical behaviors:

• Disobeyed orders from his superiors

• Worked with army intelligence in direct contravention of federal rules

• Cracked other people's machines in order to obtain information.

I'd say it's pretty clear that his ethics and morals are questionable based on the above. As I don't have oversight of US intelligence activities and can only point to a long past history of US misdeeds (including supporting and funding terrorists in Latin America -- carried out by another well-known "patriot" called Oliver North, the manufacture of evidence about Iraqi WMDs, the attacks made on CIA operatives by the neocons etc.) I can only express a deep skepticism about what this self-confessed criminal was up to.

If you want to bury your head in the sand about the possibility that there's a little more to this than meets the eye then that's fine, but starting out with an assumption of honesty pretty much precludes all rational discussion. You should add all the above to your list of "this is what we know" and remove assumptions that he's a "good American". All we can observe are the publically reported parts of his behavior.

It'd be a good idea to add in to that list of "stuff we know" the information that Mr.Carpenter and his wife have obtained jobs in the heavily politicised Dept. of Homeland Security (I referenced that earlier here but a few people seem to think that my musings are un-patriotic deviations from groupthink and should be modded down to oblivion, so you might miss them).

I remember there was quite a large article in Time magazine about Carpenter, two years ago. http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1098961,0 0.html Burn Karma, Burn

Us troops never raped or killed anybody

Actually, some of the dead are tired of being stolen from:
http://www.time.com/time/asia/asia/magazine/1999/9 90719/souls1.html

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

The amount of confusion and damage that this could do would be enormous. And it would have the added benefit (to the attacker) of leaving the hard assets (buildings, people) in place, unlike an actual war. These could be simply bought up later, rather cheaply.

There are different ways to root a country. Actual destruction is the most expensive and inefficent approach there is.

The real cause of these cyberspace attacks is that the U.S. government has actively encouraged them. First, the Feds have actually punished Government employees who have tried to stop these attacks. Read The Invasion of the Chinese Cyberspies (And the Man Who Tried to Stop Them) This is a variation on a common theme of the attitude of the U.S. government, unfortunately. Protecting the U.S. appears not to be a priority.

The second biggest problem is that the Federal Government has set up a hostile enviroment to discourage Security Research. Security researches are threatened with prosecution, jail time and civil lawsuits that can bankrupt them. The common occurance is when a Researcher reports a problem with a flaw in a product. There are no Safe Harbor procedures or provisions in any Federal law which allow this to happen so that society in general can benefit.

This has had a rather chilling effort on the IT industry as a whole. There is no safe way to study real cracking, so our students (and industry workers) really don't understand how the bad guys work. This also has the added downside that new technologies are developed without any real understanding (or even concern) of what the attack vectors are. MS Windows is the best known example. Javascript is the second best.

Had the U.S. implemented Safe Harbor provisions, we'd be in far better shape to deal with hostile attacks, throughout the entire industry.

While the offshoring of jobs has had an effect, without the above two points we'd still have this problem. Furthermore, if we had shored up and expanded our efforts in Security Research, we would be a lot more resistant to backoffice exploits.

It is also obvious that security can't be offshored. So if the Federal government had made security a priority, your original point would be moot.

Actually, Global *cooling* was a concern thirty years ago.

Time says the 500th amputee was a Corporal, injured on January 12th 2007.

1. trenchmice could improve its game by letting companies submit their save files.
   1. Currently things aren't this way.
      1. Real world recreation counterpart in virtual competition: Some Utah cafes where people go to get a bight to eat and socialize. One in Seattle has an xbox and there is a highly probable possibility that other places do as well. There's a price shock: visitors get the opportunity to game the valuing system and difficultly make appraisals on chow. Spending a billion dollars on a bagel is a lowly probable possibility.

Propounding an idea: it'd be a great for Trenchmice to encourage dumpster diving to find confidential company records to find out if companies have ball and crane tactics for getting and managing an inventory of ahrkmm cough*scrap*cough workers. Besides that, Trenchmice could consult microsoft for advise on how to display statements on corporate condition and values they have for employees. [Even though Microsoft's personal agenda sucks, I respect their decent side projects--such as live search, xbox, and working with bungie--and would consider considering (I'm in no position to make such decisions myself) microsoft for the job]

Wanda Higgins, a 47-year-old Weymouth resident and a nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, heard about the threat as she watched television news coverage while preparing to leave work at 4 p.m. "I saw the bomb squad guys carrying a paper bag with their bare hands," Higgins said. "I knew it couldn't be too serious."

"Today, www.google.com is the most visited site on the web" I read just two days ago on time.com that Yahoo had a LOT more pageviews than Google, 500mm to 380mm per month. See: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1 584788-2,00.html

So, let's see here.

How ubiquitous was the CD in 1983? Hardly. It was a bleeding edge product and was high priced, as all bleeding edge products are.

When HDTV was introduced in 1998 prices were around $6,000 - $9,000.

So by that standard, prices should be around $10,000 - $15,000 today.

Oh, the RIAA reminds me that:

Ah, that must be Vladimir I. Lenin and his troupe of musical capitalist running dogs?

Seriously, I'm from an English speaking country but have lived in Germany for yonks, and you quickly learn what you can get away with in terms of frivolous reference to Mr. H and his All-Singing, All-Dancing Nazi Party. Mind you, things are lightening up a little, the first Hitler comedy was recently released in cinemas.

These sorts of things crop up every few years: poll a bunch of people - prominent scientists, celebrities, politicians, bum-on-the-street, [insert other demographic here] - on what the best invention of the last X years (or ever) was. You can get some interesting results. I would be facinated to see a histographic breakdown of the results of this contest among space enthusiasts.

The so-called torture tactics that the media makes up are bullshit.

Really? This is for a guy who would most likely be found guilty if he ever saw the inside of a courtroom, if the tactics that have been used hadn't made that impossible. Remember, the transcript they're talking about (which I read at the time, but can't find now) was released by the Government, not written by the media.

most of these people are actually guilty

Some of us out here in the real world would prefer things like evidence before making claims like that. If I were locked up for five years without trial, without charges and without evidence, hell yeah I'd be throwing my wastes over people -- what other recourse would I have?

You just don't walk into a random town and grab people of the streets and mail them to Cuba.

If you look at the bounties the Northern Alliance were getting, some of the people who have already been released from Gitmo had exactly that happen to them.

If these people aren't POWs, and aren't criminals, we can't invent some special new category for them that disqualifies them from any judicial protection whatsoever -- democracies don't work like that.

"if you had no weapons of mass destruction then why not let the U.N. inspectors into your facilities?" Saddam's reply: "We didn't want them to go into the presidential areas and intrude on our privacy."

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,5614 72,00.html

Yup, just sock the brain with enough alcohol to knock out an elephant before its development is complete, and then you wonder how these half-naked fakirs [*] are overtaking your economy. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6294409.stm

[*] before you mod me troll, that was what Sir Winston Churchill called a guy named Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

That is interesting indeed. I had been told by Indians that Gandhi was called the "nanga fakir" which they said meant "naked fakir" although the most naked he is ever depicted, unlike some ascetics, was to have his top half uncovered (basically like being shirtless, though he is usually shown wearing a type of robe). I did not know that this originated as an insult by Churchill (of all people) but it did. I guess it is similar to the New England colonists adopting the moniker "yankee" which originated as a Dutch slur lobbed at them from New Amsterdam,and the later adoption of "Yankee Doodle" as a fight song after British soldiers used it to mock those colonists in the Revolution.

It does look like it is not too late for others to get in on the act of mocking Gandhi, if even in jest.

Still, I think it is disengenuous to refer to the Indians who are "taking our jobs" as "naked fakirs." After all the reason they are able to do your job so well is partly due to the fact that in addition to the Indian appreciation for education they also have learned to appreciate certain aspects of European and American culture; you'll find that most of them are for lack of a better term very much westernized, and certainly modern. They are thoroughly Indian as they are part of the new India. Though it does often please us American IT folks to be called wizards and gurus, I am not sure how Indian IT people would feel about being called fakirs, naked or not, especially given the religious implications. I guess they can answer for themselves, unless they feel like you are trolling after all and do not deign to respond.

(I actually think that this was probably a troll after all given the username, but it was thought-provoking even if unintentionally so, and given the subject matter I felt compelled to comment anyhow).

In 1978 an Air Rhodesia plane carrying 52 passengers and four crew members was shot down by guerrillas with a shoulder-fired missile. A few months later, the missile-toting guerrillas fired on another Air Rhodesia flight, killing all 59 people on board. ... In the past 18 months, al Qaeda has twice tried to down planes with shoulder-fired missiles; both times they missed.

You know, Manhattan Project-style efforts have their uses, but I don't know that they're the solution to everything. (Hilariously, you can read a Time article from 1958 making some of the same criticisms we're seeing in this discussion.) As Von Braun said, crash programs are based on the assumption that if you put nine women on the job, you can make a baby in one month. In certain cases, this is so, but heavily applied research isn't the right tool for every job.

For instance, a good solution for growing fuel would be a rolling prize in the style of the Methuselah Mouse Prize for the greatest net energy extracted from one acre of land, taking all inputs (equipment fuel, fertilizers, etc) into account. If the problems to be solved are vague and the methods unknown, might prize incentives work better than crash programs?

Now, that method doesn't really apply to the problem of orphan drugs, or drugs which may not be commercially viable but nevertheless might have strongly beneficial effects. The FDA has an orphan-drugs program (which, incidentally, did safety research on dichloroacetate a few years ago to treat some rare diseases) which does that kind of thing. An entirely new plan of attack against a disease (like this one, for instance) is far more valuable medically than yet another COX-2 inhibitor. If you want more drugs which might not be commercially viable, I'd start there; while the orphan drugs program funds only clinical trials for drugs to treat rare diseases, you might look into developing vaccines (expensive and unprofitable), or cures, rather than temporary treatments, for common conditions.

I suppose I'm nitpicking, as a "Manhattan Project" generally refers to a large, concerted effort of any kind, not just a crash research program. John Edwards's ending-poverty proposal isn't a crash research program, but it is a large and concerted effort. At least someone's talking about that sort of thing.

<sarcasm>Time and Newsweek have always been reliable presenters of science news.</sarcasm>

The question is, can you find a climatology journal article from the 70's that agrees with Time or Newsweek? If not, then one should be no more surprised that Time and Newsweek were wrong then about science as one should be surprised when they're wrong now.

(For the record, the Summer of the Shark did not see an increase in shark attacks. And no, I'm not holding up CNN as a good science source, either. Coincidentally enough, there was also a Summer of the Shark in 1975.)

<sarcasm>Time and Newsweek have always been reliable presenters of science news.</sarcasm>

The question is, can you find a climatology journal article from the 70's that agrees with Time or Newsweek? If not, then one should be no more surprised that Time and Newsweek were wrong then about science as one should be surprised when they're wrong now.

(For the record, the Summer of the Shark did not see an increase in shark attacks. And no, I'm not holding up CNN as a good science source, either. Coincidentally enough, there was also a Summer of the Shark in 1975.)

And ofcourse according to the Bush administration those people didn't have any freedom and couldn't enjoy the things we had here. Amazing how much of the official stories turn into pure falsified information whenever you're coming into contact with information residing from someone who actually lives in the region itself...

Well said. As many on Slashdot know, there are few things more important, or a greater demonstration of freedom, than playing games like Medal of Honor and Call of Duty, unless it is playing soccer or other sports. It is difficult to call Iraq during Saddam's rule anything but a "paradise" for everyone, from children to those of privilege, and even to Saddam's own family, like son-in-law Hussein Kamel . I don't know why everyone on Slashdot doesn't understand that. Maybe with a bit more education....

start here

Monday, Dec. 08, 1980
The Robot Revolution
http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,922173,00 .html

Weaknesses? Absolutely. You can't download songs directly onto it from the iTunes store, you have to export them from a computer. And even though it's got WiFi and Bluetooth on it, you can't sync iPhone with a computer wirelessly. And there should be games on it. And you're required to use it as a phone--you can't use it without signing up for cellular service. Boo.

Here's my post above... I think that spells out the basics... but for a quick summary:

ISPs want to be able to provide content and services (video, Voice over IP, etc.), but due to their lack of experience in those fields, they want to handicap the companies that have worked for years to do a good job of providing their own services, and make those established companies pay more money to get their content to your house with the same priority as the content from the ISP (or to get there at all). As an example, it's been said that in some regions where Comcast offered VoIP service, they were choking off Vonage VoIP packets to their customers, making their own service artificially "better".

Without Net Neutrality, the service you get at your house depends entirely on which providers pony up to your ISP, or possibly, which providers your ISP doesn't like. Remember who Time's Person of the year was for 2006? Well with non-neutrality, the bloggers, youtubers, and any other independent voices lose out to the people who pay or get paid by the telecoms. The telecoms make it sound like the other content providers are just freeloaders, getting rich off the Internet without paying for their traffic, but it's really just the telecoms wanting to pocket more money, just because someone other than them came up with a useful idea for the Internet.

It's funny, but it seems like they're kind of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs... If the ISPs become the only content providers, and their content will suck, what motivation is there to use the Internet anymore? I'm sure traffic and subscribers will go down once people realize they can't get the services they were paying $40 + a month to get. Once online gaming, VoIP, the almost-fledgling movie download market, myspace, youtube, and all the other useful features of the Internet get screwed over, who wants to use the Internet anymore?

Time magazine actually answered this question in a recent article about the challenges Starbucks is grappling with as it tries to grow even larger:

Historically, Starbucks has done a great job at balancing new ideas with efficiency, says Frances Frei, a professor at Harvard business school who has studied the company. A classic example: the way it trains us to order in Starbucks jargon, grande this and half-caff that. Serving tens of thousands of possible drink combinations would be an operational nightmare were it not for a regimented logic to ordering, a marketing flourish that helps establish the atmosphere of an Italian café.

It's a good article -- lots of interesting tidbits about the decisions that drive their operations.

Drug testing just sets up an adversarial relationship between employee and employer. Employees that don't feel any alliance with their employer are probably more detrimental to companies than the small number that may be using drugs. The ones who don't take drugs are offended by having to prove their innocence, and the ones who do take drugs know ways to beat the tests and think their employers are idiots for requiring such testing. Employees who are valued more for their skills than the content of their urine are that much more likely to put some extra effort forth to benefit their employer.

Yeah, you guessed it: DA Mike Nifong's Hunt for the Great White Defendants in the Duke Lacrosse Frame-Up is a no-show. You see, the long-running pattern of hate crime hoaxes victimizing white male college students is nothing compared to, say, #8 on Lithwick's List, the Bush Administration "Slagging the Media."

In recent news, the hoax continues to implode. Nifong dropped the rape charges but is pressing on with other felony charges. Meanwhile, the North Carolina State Bar is investigating Nifong for ethics violations. And now the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys has asked him to recuse himself from the case.

I guess I usually hope that rather that posting rehashes of news everybody has heard (like this posting), I'd rather, for any given topic, see postings of info not commonly seen, like this.(quote of Ford at his VP confirmation hearing regarding a possible Nixon pardon - go ahead mod this offtopic).

Richard Nixon as President was the Republican party. He was the head honcho, the main man. A pardon for him was also a pardon for the party, as I already explained.

No it wasn't. The pardon was very unpopular politically. As a result, the Republicans got pounded in the midterm elections, losing 49 seats. That is far worse than they did in the last election.

Hardly. He did what was best for the only man who elected him to the position, Richard Nixon, and their political party, the Republicans.

Ford's White House had charge of the President's papers, formerly Nixon's, now his. His staff was spending 1/4 of their time just dealing with all of the legal mess from Watergate, and he was spending large amounts of his energy. That doesn't include what was going on in Congress and elsewhere. Much of the country was fixated on it. That could have lasted for years. Ford cleared it away with his pardon power: Shazam! - Instant 25% more time to spend on little things like the energy crunch, Middle East war & peace (a big deal after the massive Yom Kippur war in 1973), South East Asia, Europe, China, the Soviet Union, global cooling, and other matters. Having 25% more time to spend on issues that are important to the current business of the nation sounds best to me.

Not unlike what happened to Clinton during his 4-5 year, $50 million investigation which only determined that like a vast majority of Americans, he lied about sex.

Actually there were a series of determinations made about various issues, and new ones just keep popping up: Whitewater, Travelgate, Filegate, the Lewinski affair, Vince Foster's death, and so on. If the white House would have cooperated instead of fighting tooth and nail, and various records hadn't mysteriously gone missing and then magically appeared years later, it might have gone quicker. And, just to be clear about it, Clinton lied about sex in a case in which his sexual behavior was an issue. It cost him an $850,000 settlement, his law license, and any reimbursement for legal expenses. Other people have gone to jail for what he did. Also, the answers were only clear after the investigations, not before.

Yes, that's called justice. It's not pretty and it can take time.

Weren't you just complaining about that in President Clinton's case? Why is it different for President Nixon?

Instead what we got was a mockery of justice that only proves well connected dirty Republicans are above the law.

Whew! I was worried, for a moment I thought it was only well connected dirty Democrats, Libertarians, and the occasional independents who get off lightly. Thank goodness we have equal justice. On second thought, if well connected dirty Republicans are above the law, how did Chuck Colson, Gordon Liddy, and various others of the White House "plumbers" go to jail, and Spiro Agnew get socked for tax evasion and bribery? Why did Nixon have to resign?

As far as I'm concerned, Ford is an accomplice to Nixon's crimes by letting him go free.

Somehow I doubt that what you are really after is justice for Nixon's part in the obstruction of justice in the Watergate affair. You do realize that Cambodia, the Christmas bombing, Kent State, Vietnam, and all of the rest, would not have played any part in the trial, or any possible punishment, don't you? Even if they would have prosecuted and convicted Nixon for obstruction of justice, I doubt that you would have found that an adequate proxy for whatever real punishment you think he really deserved.

Ford does not deserve my sympathy nor respect. If there is a hell, he is certainly burning in it.

You display a remarkable generosity of spirit.

The declared 'you', not 'it' or 'everything', and the salute was mainly to bloggers, and others who make content to be shared on the internet.

Personally, I bought a Wii for a Christmas gift, I waited 4 hours in freezing weather, but I got it, and I couldn't be happier with my purchase. Reasonably priced system including a good game, innovative controllers, and games no more expensive than last year, have pushed Nintendo to the front in this generation of game systems. If I had an HDTV I would consider a PS3, as I saw a blu-ray movie on one the other day and WOW what a picture, but I don't intend on buying one until next year, and I cringe about having to buy $75 games for birthday presents.

...Of course this statement is true because no one will be using the PS3, period. I read this article thinking Sony wants to distance themselves from the 360 so they can standalone like the Wii. Therefore people will feel the need to pick up a PS3, in addition to the 360 and Wii they already own. It's not going to work Sony, you went on record saying you were the best and you were setting your sights on Microsoft. Stealing Nintendo's position of being separate from the pack is even worse than stealing their controller ideas.

Honestly, when Game Spot reports a major magazine wrote that the PS3, "just isn't that great", you have serious issues. These are the kind of media outlets that are supposed to be supporting you, not posting your eulogy.

The brash statements made Sony executive Phil Harrison are just more hyperbole from Sony trying to salvage their once great reputation. Those of us in the Internet Generation, or "Millennials", don't care about what Sony has done in the past; we care about who is doing good now. Meaning you have to bring your A-game every single time instead of resting our your forefather's laurels. Our friends don't like the PS3, they like the 360 and the Wii. And lets face it, the PS3 and the 360 are just alike, it's just the 360's overall execution is better.

Sony's hype will always be overshadowed by the haunting statement Time Magazine made about the PS3 having been beating by "something called a Wii.". Truth hurts, pal.

Any slashdotter will agree that Micro$oft is one of the greatest marketing companies of all times. They've put paid to companies far bigger than Sony (IBM anyone) and will continue to do so until some IT focused, consumer-orientated CEO decides to up his/her game.

From this story at TIME.com, it says, "Putin has said repeatedly he respects the constitution that requires him to step down."

Any thoughts from within? Inflation is going through the roof. Apartment rents that were $200 2 years ago are $600 today. Salaries have also gone up, but not to match the increase of real estate.

Corruption is everywhere. Everyone breaks the law. So many thugs and no one to police them.

Everyone feels that Putin is no longer suited to lead the country. Sure, everyone loved him a few years ago, but now they realize they need someone more modern since everything is flying towards Democracy.

My personal opinion? Putin is a fucking loser.

That is an 11% growth in Microsoft earnings over the last quarter.

""Contrary to popular belief, newspapers aren't dying. Newspapers are making tons of money." Extra: Newspapers Aren't Dead The magazine has a graphic: The operating profit margin for newspapers is 19% and debt is modest. Microsoft is debt-free and its operating margin is 39%.

The US has:
Diebold
Cheney & Halliburton
Jack Abramoff
etc.

less access to medical treatment,
The US has a rising percentage of uninsured
because of spiraling costs

more disease,
Yeah.

higher infant mortality,
The US the second highest infant mortality rate in the modern world

lower life expectancy, and in general a much shittier life then you, and me.
Agreed

I for one do feel bad.
I do too, but not just because of worldwide inequality. I feel bad that global outsourcing is not enriching other people in other countries much. I feel bad that corporations are free to pocket vast profits, while escaping tax burdens. I feel bad that the US is sliding downwards instead of managing to pull the rest of the world up. As a resident of the US, I feel guilty that we seem to have an "I've got mine, good luck with yours" philosophy. The free market has costs.

First read this (Time) : http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1 004099-3,00.html
"Brookings Institution military analyst Michael O'Hanlon praises the approach, which relies heavily on special forces, unmanned drones and possibly a new *high-powered* microwave weapon"

Then, read this (NY Post) : http://archiv.infopeace.de/msg01572.html
"U.S. military officials said last night that a preliminary battle plan
outlined for President Bush last week calls for the most extensive use of
electronic and psychological warfare in history - including secret new
electromagnetic pulse weapons to disable Saddam's entire command and
control structure."

And finally, read this : http://www.rense.com/general40/secret.htm
"A nightmarish US super weapon reportedly was employed by American ground forces during chaotic street fighting in Baghdad. The secret tank-mounted weapon was witnessed in all its frightening power [...] Searching for a description, al-Ghazali said it appeared to be shooting concentrated lightning bolts rather than just ordinary flames."

Are U.S. using Iraq as a test bed for new electromagnetic *lethal* weapons ?