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Going off on the same tangent, here's an example of a fragile base class. The Virginia legislature shortened (rather than completely eliminate, as in your malloc() dangling reference example) a list of businesses subject to some exemptions, not realizing that that same list was also used by another law saying which businesses had to be closed on Sundays.

Here is some evidence from the New York Times that assassins are created.

Bush and the $500m fusion lollipop

• July 5, 2003 AP silently strikes line about anti-Bush protestors
• Mar. 5, 2004 Battle at Al-Aqsa: story altered and ignored
• Mar. 10, 2004 CNN scrubbing U.S. involvement in Haiti coup, but Wash Post can't change its page 18
• June 23, 2004 Wash Post desperately trying to ignore blogs -- and its own past stories (and scrubbing them)

• July 5, 2003 AP silently strikes line about anti-Bush protestors
• Mar. 5, 2004 Battle at Al-Aqsa: story altered and ignored
• Mar. 10, 2004 CNN scrubbing U.S. involvement in Haiti coup, but Wash Post can't change its page 18
• June 23, 2004 Wash Post desperately trying to ignore blogs -- and its own past stories (and scrubbing them)

• July 5, 2003 AP silently strikes line about anti-Bush protestors
• Mar. 5, 2004 Battle at Al-Aqsa: story altered and ignored
• Mar. 10, 2004 CNN scrubbing U.S. involvement in Haiti coup, but Wash Post can't change its page 18
• June 23, 2004 Wash Post desperately trying to ignore blogs -- and its own past stories (and scrubbing them)

• July 5, 2003 AP silently strikes line about anti-Bush protestors
• Mar. 5, 2004 Battle at Al-Aqsa: story altered and ignored
• Mar. 10, 2004 CNN scrubbing U.S. involvement in Haiti coup, but Wash Post can't change its page 18
• June 23, 2004 Wash Post desperately trying to ignore blogs -- and its own past stories (and scrubbing them)

Look, if your not earning a "living wage" then adapt.

Basic algebra for you ...

"X" number of ppl in workforce
"Y" number of jobs that pay above poverty level
"Z" number of ppl that will live in poverty because all the good jobs are taken

X - Y = Z

The exact value of the variables is variable, but it is impossible statistically that X = Y
as we know that Z exists in the millions .

Keep in mind also the unemployment rate is not based on the number of ppl out of work
its based on some survey that is not pursued aggressively, and does not have truly
random sampling .

http://www.underreported.com/modules.php?op=modloa d&name=News&file=article&sid=1092&mode=thread&orde r=0&thold=0

In the summer of 2003 it is presumed that the rate was almost 11% of the country had no
job at all and many were working below the level of their education .

Their shirt of choice :

http://www.cafepress.com/overeducated

The stories of ppl qualified to do more, but are losing their homes :

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0930/p09s01-coop.htm l

The so called soft landing, and recovery economy is a load of crap .

Ex-MislTech

'Some of the people want to query about democracy, but most of them just want to know about their pop stars.'

• Important change germinates from a minority opinion that is well-formed, not through groupthink herd mentality.
• "Let them eat cake."
• Providing a steam of information on pop stars as a way to distract from real issues -- didn't the U.S. already try this with Radio Sawa in Iraq?
• Director of research? He was probably just reporting facts matter-of-factly without understanding the ethical, moral, and political implications. Now that Google is so powerful, Google may want to gag everyone except those in its PR department.
• This is the problem with treating media as a corporation rather than the fourth estate. The term "fourth estate" orginally applied to a gallery of reporters. One huge near-monopolistic corporation practicing censorship does not constitute a gallery.

You've heard of peak oil and now peak copper, but there are only 12-25 years of known silver deposits left, and silver is the best conductor of electricity and is also used in a lot of other (yes, non-photographic) industrial uses.

Unless plan on buying pre-2002 tires for the rest of your life, you are already being tracked by RFID'ish tags. This was put into law a while ago, tire manufacturers don't publicize it: http://www.underreported.com/modules.php?op=modloa d&name=News&file=article&sid=702

JUSTICE O'CONNOR, JUSTICE KENNEDY, and JUSTICE SOUTER delivered the opinion of the Court with respect to Parts I, II, and III, concluding that consideration of the fundamental constitutional question resolved by Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 , principles of institutional integrity, and the rule of stare decisis require that Roe's essential holding be retained.

As for Roberts, neither of the two most popular quotes of his are relevant. Quote #1 of "We continue to believe that Roe was wrongly decided and should be overruled" was made when he was solicitor general and charged to represent the views of President Reagan. Apparently contradictory quote #2 "Roe v. Wade is the settled law of the land," was made when he was being confirmed for a lower court -- what else could he have said? No, the most important quote is "I don't think it's appropriate for me to criticize [Roe] as judicial activism. ... My definition of judicial activism is when the court departs from applying the rule of law and undertakes legislative or executive decisions." That indicates he sees nothing glaringly wrong with Roe v. Wade and thus will not vote to overturn.

The scary part about Roberts, though, is his close ties to Bush and support for his policies such as Guantanamo Bay. With the Chief Justice gone, my fear is that Bush may make Roberts Chief Justice rather than the earlier favorites of Thomas or Scalia.

Thomas, at least, voted for medical marijuana (along with Rehnquist) as a vote for states rights and constitutionality. Thomas would be the strict Constitutionalist ideological heir of Rehnquist for the Chief Justice seat, but we're likely to end up with a neocon like Roberts instead.

JUSTICE O'CONNOR, JUSTICE KENNEDY, and JUSTICE SOUTER delivered the opinion of the Court with respect to Parts I, II, and III, concluding that consideration of the fundamental constitutional question resolved by Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 , principles of institutional integrity, and the rule of stare decisis require that Roe's essential holding be retained.

As for Roberts, neither of the two most popular quotes of his are relevant. Quote #1 of "We continue to believe that Roe was wrongly decided and should be overruled" was made when he was solicitor general and charged to represent the views of President Reagan. Apparently contradictory quote #2 "Roe v. Wade is the settled law of the land," was made when he was being confirmed for a lower court -- what else could he have said? No, the most important quote is "I don't think it's appropriate for me to criticize [Roe] as judicial activism. ... My definition of judicial activism is when the court departs from applying the rule of law and undertakes legislative or executive decisions." That indicates he sees nothing glaringly wrong with Roe v. Wade and thus will not vote to overturn.

The scary part about Roberts, though, is his close ties to Bush and support for his policies such as Guantanamo Bay. With the Chief Justice gone, my fear is that Bush may make Roberts Chief Justice rather than the earlier favorites of Thomas or Scalia.

Thomas, at least, voted for medical marijuana (along with Rehnquist) as a vote for states rights and constitutionality. Thomas would be the strict Constitutionalist ideological heir of Rehnquist for the Chief Justice seat, but we're likely to end up with a neocon like Roberts instead.

For some marginally good news for a change, as highlighted by jewishvoiceforpeace.org and corpwatch.org, according to an Apr. 15, 2004 Peoria Journal Star article:

Activists protested Wednesday outside Caterpillar Inc.'s annual shareholders meeting in Chicago, but lost their bid to get the Peoria corporation to study the use of its equipment in razing Palestinian homes overseas.

Stock owners defeated a proposal to determine whether the sale of bulldozers and other machinery to the Israel Defense Forces is consistent with Caterpillar's global code of business conduct. The Fortune 100 company's board opposed the measure.

Caterpillar's new chairman and CEO, Jim Owens, repeated the company's position that it feels compassion for displaced families but can't police the use of its more than 2 million pieces of equipment worldwide.

"After they've been sold, the owners of those machines determine how they're used," Owens told an audience of about 50 at the Northern Trust Building in Chicago's Loop. Some of the activists got inside the meeting because they or groups they represent own Caterpillar stock. Five of them spoke to board members before tentative voting results were announced; the measure earned support from about 4 percent of shareholders, which would allow it to be reintroduced next year.

Liat Weingart, co-director of San Francisco-based Jewish Voice for Peace, said more than 50,000 people have lost their homes in demolitions that often have no relation to Israeli security. Some Palestinians have been buried alive, she said.

Caterpillar is headquarted in Peoria, which is why the Peoria newspaper ran the story. I've been unable to locate any other newspaper running this story.

The Peoria newspaper portrays it as a loss for the activists, when in fact it is a major victory (the 4% means it has to be discussed at next year's shareholder meeting) and represents a creative and practical means for effecting change in corporate behavior -- much more practical than street riots.

As I've often stated, corporations should not be so large, last so long, and have Constitutional rights. However, if they have to be around, then the proposal contained in the conclusion of the seminal Small Is Beautiful for bridling corporations is good. Small is Beautiful says that since corporations are like mini-governments, run them as a democracy where all the stakeholders (all who are affected by the existence of the corporation, including investors but especially those who live near the corporation's activities) vote.

Failing those two -- i.e. if we can't ban large corporations and if we can't have stakeholders vote on how large corporations should be run -- then participating in the existing corporate governance process -- namely buying stock and voting at shareholders meetings -- is the next best thing.

This peaceful, legal alternative to reining in amoral powerful corporations has gone underreported.

See also the previous UnderReported.com stories:

• Feb. 6, 2004 With Israeli bulldozers, practice makes perfect
• Nov. 6, 2003 U.S. learning urban warfare from IDF: armored D-9s to take down buildings

For some marginally good news for a change, as highlighted by jewishvoiceforpeace.org and corpwatch.org, according to an Apr. 15, 2004 Peoria Journal Star article:

Activists protested Wednesday outside Caterpillar Inc.'s annual shareholders meeting in Chicago, but lost their bid to get the Peoria corporation to study the use of its equipment in razing Palestinian homes overseas.

Stock owners defeated a proposal to determine whether the sale of bulldozers and other machinery to the Israel Defense Forces is consistent with Caterpillar's global code of business conduct. The Fortune 100 company's board opposed the measure.

Caterpillar's new chairman and CEO, Jim Owens, repeated the company's position that it feels compassion for displaced families but can't police the use of its more than 2 million pieces of equipment worldwide.

"After they've been sold, the owners of those machines determine how they're used," Owens told an audience of about 50 at the Northern Trust Building in Chicago's Loop. Some of the activists got inside the meeting because they or groups they represent own Caterpillar stock. Five of them spoke to board members before tentative voting results were announced; the measure earned support from about 4 percent of shareholders, which would allow it to be reintroduced next year.

Liat Weingart, co-director of San Francisco-based Jewish Voice for Peace, said more than 50,000 people have lost their homes in demolitions that often have no relation to Israeli security. Some Palestinians have been buried alive, she said.

Caterpillar is headquarted in Peoria, which is why the Peoria newspaper ran the story. I've been unable to locate any other newspaper running this story.

The Peoria newspaper portrays it as a loss for the activists, when in fact it is a major victory (the 4% means it has to be discussed at next year's shareholder meeting) and represents a creative and practical means for effecting change in corporate behavior -- much more practical than street riots.

As I've often stated, corporations should not be so large, last so long, and have Constitutional rights. However, if they have to be around, then the proposal contained in the conclusion of the seminal Small Is Beautiful for bridling corporations is good. Small is Beautiful says that since corporations are like mini-governments, run them as a democracy where all the stakeholders (all who are affected by the existence of the corporation, including investors but especially those who live near the corporation's activities) vote.

Failing those two -- i.e. if we can't ban large corporations and if we can't have stakeholders vote on how large corporations should be run -- then participating in the existing corporate governance process -- namely buying stock and voting at shareholders meetings -- is the next best thing.

This peaceful, legal alternative to reining in amoral powerful corporations has gone underreported.

See also the previous UnderReported.com stories:

• Feb. 6, 2004 With Israeli bulldozers, practice makes perfect
• Nov. 6, 2003 U.S. learning urban warfare from IDF: armored D-9s to take down buildings

For some marginally good news for a change, as highlighted by jewishvoiceforpeace.org and corpwatch.org, according to an Apr. 15, 2004 Peoria Journal Star article:

Activists protested Wednesday outside Caterpillar Inc.'s annual shareholders meeting in Chicago, but lost their bid to get the Peoria corporation to study the use of its equipment in razing Palestinian homes overseas.

Stock owners defeated a proposal to determine whether the sale of bulldozers and other machinery to the Israel Defense Forces is consistent with Caterpillar's global code of business conduct. The Fortune 100 company's board opposed the measure.

Caterpillar's new chairman and CEO, Jim Owens, repeated the company's position that it feels compassion for displaced families but can't police the use of its more than 2 million pieces of equipment worldwide.

"After they've been sold, the owners of those machines determine how they're used," Owens told an audience of about 50 at the Northern Trust Building in Chicago's Loop. Some of the activists got inside the meeting because they or groups they represent own Caterpillar stock. Five of them spoke to board members before tentative voting results were announced; the measure earned support from about 4 percent of shareholders, which would allow it to be reintroduced next year.

Liat Weingart, co-director of San Francisco-based Jewish Voice for Peace, said more than 50,000 people have lost their homes in demolitions that often have no relation to Israeli security. Some Palestinians have been buried alive, she said.

Caterpillar is headquarted in Peoria, which is why the Peoria newspaper ran the story. I've been unable to locate any other newspaper running this story.

The Peoria newspaper portrays it as a loss for the activists, when in fact it is a major victory (the 4% means it has to be discussed at next year's shareholder meeting) and represents a creative and practical means for effecting change in corporate behavior -- much more practical than street riots.

As I've often stated, corporations should not be so large, last so long, and have Constitutional rights. However, if they have to be around, then the proposal contained in the conclusion of the seminal Small Is Beautiful for bridling corporations is good. Small is Beautiful says that since corporations are like mini-governments, run them as a democracy where all the stakeholders (all who are affected by the existence of the corporation, including investors but especially those who live near the corporation's activities) vote.

Failing those two -- i.e. if we can't ban large corporations and if we can't have stakeholders vote on how large corporations should be run -- then participating in the existing corporate governance process -- namely buying stock and voting at shareholders meetings -- is the next best thing.

This peaceful, legal alternative to reining in amoral powerful corporations has gone underreported.

See also the previous UnderReported.com stories:

• Feb. 6, 2004 With Israeli bulldozers, practice makes perfect
• Nov. 6, 2003 U.S. learning urban warfare from IDF: armored D-9s to take down buildings

The U.S. Executive Branch: dominion over all

I discovered this issue 18 months ago.

Virginia blogs barred from mentioning local candidates

In response to the following question:

Now that the Fairfax County Supervisor candidates are announced, if I provide an opinion on my blog that is negative or positive about what an incumbant Supervisor has done, would that require me to file a disclosure report pursuant to 24.2-910?

I received the following response:

If the total aggregate of the independent expenditure is in excess of $200 and the expenditure is made to influence the outcome of an election for public office and if any material is published to the public referring to a candidate by name, description, or other reference, advocating the election or defeat, setting forth his position on any public issue, voting record, or other official acts, or otherwise designed to influence individuals to cast their votes for or against a candidate.

You must file a Statement of Organization and disclose the independent expenditure on a contributions and expenditures disclosure report.

The "Paid for by" and "Authorized by or Not Authorized by" Statements would apply as well.

Rise' Miller
State Board of Elections
Campaign Finance Division

I should have also highlighted that the oppression continues to this day. See my blog story Egyptian pro-Christian pro-democracy activist sentenced to 7 years -- page 15 of Wash Post.

Regardless that the risk of losing a job is real, the CNN and Washington Post stories fail to mention the benefits to society of news blogs like mine that highlight the relevance of buried stories, and even break stories from time to time.

The press is supposed to be acting as the unofficial fourth branch of the U.S. government, to keep the other three in check. This is eloquently summarized in a 2002 6th Circuit Court decision:

In our democracy, based on checks and balances, neither the Bill of Rights nor the judiciary can second-guess government's choices. The only safeguard on this extraordinary governmental power is the public, deputizing the press as the guardians of their liberty.(1) "An informed public is the most potent of all restraints upon misgovernment[.]" Grosjean v. Am. Press Co., 297 U.S. 233, 250 (1936). "[They] alone can here protect the values of democratic government." New York Times v. United States, 403 U.S. 713, 728 (1971) (per curiam) (Stewart, J., concurring).

[...] [Footnote 1] A draft of the First Amendment specifically referred to the press as "one of the great bulwarks of liberty." New York Times v. United States, 403 U.S. 713, 716 (1971) (per curiam) (Black, J., concurring).

The mainstream media is scared. After the tenth anniversary of Yahoo!, they haven't figured out yet what to do with the Internet. In a desperate bid, the Washington Post just bought Slate -- a marriage as divine as AOL/Time Warner. Here are two quick suggestions for any mainstream media moguls who happen to be reading this:

1. Provide deep links to primary source documents like the bloggers do (court decisions, legislative bills, corporate press releases, etc.)
2. Allow the readership to vote stories up to the front page. (Advanced: provide for affinity groups, in the manner of Amazon.)

The first mainstream media outlet that can leverage its brand, overcome these hurdles, and embrace the nature of the Internet (namely, linking and collaboration) stands to make a financial killing while simultaneously living up to their charge by the founding fathers of being our "guardian of liberty."

• The image is like an X-ray projection as opposed to just a surface image. I.e., a hypothesis that satisfies this is if the Shroud fell straight through the body of Jesus. (This is why Mel Gibson portrayed it that way in his movie.)
• The discolorations of the fibers that form the image penetrate the fibers only to a shallow amount. Moreover, the fibers are penetrated both on the top and the bottom, with the middles of the fibers untouched. This "second image" on the back-side (to which researchers have had limited access to until recently) that was reported last spring (see New image found on back of Shroud of Turin: Reported around the world except U.S.) corroborates the hypothesis above. To explain this, various scientists have suggested a "corona discharge" or "thermo-nuclear reaction", which is why Mel Gibson added that visual element to his movie.
• The 1988 carbon dating has been debunked for a long time; this is not news.
• Various Popes personally believe it to be authentic, but could never speak infallibly on the issue as Popes cannot speak infallibly about particulars, only the universals of faith and morals.

For more on this redistribution of massive amounts of money inhibiting religion, see the position of a Vatican official

[...] Archbishop Lajolo said limits on religious freedom exist almost everywhere.

For instance, he said, government and taxation policies may limit the rights of parents to choose a religious education for their children [...]

While they aren't about to end the world, they are becoming an unsettling risk. For example, superbug salmonella is on the rise--resistant to 9 different antibiotics. And chicken in Spain is getting nasty, resistant to the antibiotic Vancomycin, a powerful drug used to clear out horrid infections.

So, while the general human population may not be harboring the superbugs right now they could commute from the animal population. Maybe instead of watching human resistance to viruses we should be keeping check on our domestic animals, since the superbugs may come from them.

While they aren't about to end the world, they are becoming an unsettling risk. For example, superbug salmonella is on the rise--resistant to 9 different antibiotics. And chicken in Spain is getting nasty, resistant to the antibiotic Vancomycin, a powerful drug used to clear out horrid infections.

So, while the general human population may not be harboring the superbugs right now they could commute from the animal population. Maybe instead of watching human resistance to viruses we should be keeping check on our domestic animals, since the superbugs may come from them.

Recommend the link if you would like (or don't mind) votes transferred from Bush to Peroutka (Constitution Party).

This was the very issue that touchscreen voting was supposed to have solved, the sole redeeming virtue of touchscreen to counterbalance all the negativities.

The user interface problems, I trust, will eventually get solved on their own. But the underlying problems with electronic voting that we are all familiar with -- the most pressing issue -- will not be solved unless the public is made aware not only of the problem ("eat your vote", as the InfoWorld article blithely leads off with), but also the solutions.

So often I hear in social and political gatherings that "paper trails" are bad because paper shouldn't follow voters home lest their be voter intimidation. No one is familiar with printouts behind a glass window until I tell them about it.

That doesn't even get into secure paperless schemes, such as the one invented by David Chaum, the first inventor of digital cash (secure, anonymous, digital) and founder of DigiCash (another underreported technology that could solve all sorts of privacy issues such as with automated road tolling). Chaum's new voting technology is discussed in the October, 2004 Communications of the ACM, which is dedicated toward voting technology issues. ITAA should follow the lead of its academic counterpart ACM rather than propagating ignorance, and by extension, tyranny.

This was the very issue that touchscreen voting was supposed to have solved, the sole redeeming virtue of touchscreen to counterbalance all the negativities.

The user interface problems, I trust, will eventually get solved on their own. But the underlying problems with electronic voting that we are all familiar with -- the most pressing issue -- will not be solved unless the public is made aware not only of the problem ("eat your vote", as the InfoWorld article blithely leads off with), but also the solutions.

So often I hear in social and political gatherings that "paper trails" are bad because paper shouldn't follow voters home lest their be voter intimidation. No one is familiar with printouts behind a glass window until I tell them about it.

That doesn't even get into secure paperless schemes, such as the one invented by David Chaum, the first inventor of digital cash (secure, anonymous, digital) and founder of DigiCash (another underreported technology that could solve all sorts of privacy issues such as with automated road tolling). Chaum's new voting technology is discussed in the October, 2004 Communications of the ACM, which is dedicated toward voting technology issues. ITAA should follow the lead of its academic counterpart ACM rather than propagating ignorance, and by extension, tyranny.

This BBC story is the source quoted in the under reported story.

At least the BBC clearly says that a 5 year study concluded what is immediately obvious (it is human waste causing the problem) as opposed to some spin related to chickens.

I'd wager all major urban centers are affected by this.

I recal the local newspaper (Toronto Star) saying estrogen like hormones are detectable in the drinking water, (but the Star is a net black hole w/o a search feature).

Cheers :)

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics itself keeps track of those who have given up looking for work. It measures these in a statistic called "U-6", but it's "U-3" that is called the "official unemployment rate" that is reported by the mainstream media. The mainstream media -- and it seems also snopes.com -- never mention U-6. See my blog article Real U.S. unemployment rate is 9.5%.

The story summary said specifically "mainstream media dissected", so I just had to suggest my site. While I'm at it, I'll mention my direct "competitors" that I know of that also fit that description:

• unknownnews.net
• Take Back the Media
• projectcensored.org

This is a much bigger thing to be concerned about.

1984 Sony v. Universal case regarding Sony's Betamax VTRs and copying of copyrighted movies

Shameless plug: this was covered almost a year ago in my blog article U.S. corroborating with WIPO to overturn Betamax decision and also eliminate public domain (which I've shamelessly plugged here before).

More trivia: before the Betamax decision, movies would come on HBO before videotape release (prime example: Star Wars -- HBO copies for a time were the only way to get a Star Wars videotape). Due to the assumed illegality of taping off HBO, movie studios considered HBO airing to constitute less ownership than selling videotapes. The Betamax decision reversed this notion, and thusly also the order of release.

U.S. taxpayers pay $700m for Taxol wonder cancer drug; Bristol-Myers reaps $1700m profit

I think you miss the difference between tennantcy and those who have a freehold on real estate.

While suburban residents may own independent plots, they are not allowed to produce upon them. And as I indicated in my blog article, there are no affordable commercial plots because they are all multi-acre -- such as strip shopping centers. Retail space in a shopping center is leased rather than sold, as individual rowhouse stores are in small-town urban form.

Also, to address your tangential remark on malls, I side with the urban planners. See my blog entries Connecticut Supreme Court rules malls can block free speech and Privatizing of the public realm restricting RFID protesters.

Again, your analogy of space to the U.S. frontier is astute. Thinking about it some more, though, it just may be that individual plot ownership has no role in space due to its inhospitality. Taking your analogy of sea transport to space transport, I don't share your vision of competition, but rather imagine that the situation would still be monopolistic, controlled by corporations or government, or both. Namely, I expect space transport to be controlled similar to airlines today. All civil liberties are now gone in airports; there are excessive "security" taxes; some countries are cut off from airline service for strictly political reasons; etc.

To a certain extent, people need other people to survive. But the degree to which this is true in space (compared to the U.S. frontier) and the dependency on a likely transport monopoly (and monopolies on space homesteading equipment) leads me to believe that individual plot ownership in space would be meaningless even in the unlikely scenario that governments and corporations would allow it.

I think you miss the difference between tennantcy and those who have a freehold on real estate.

While suburban residents may own independent plots, they are not allowed to produce upon them. And as I indicated in my blog article, there are no affordable commercial plots because they are all multi-acre -- such as strip shopping centers. Retail space in a shopping center is leased rather than sold, as individual rowhouse stores are in small-town urban form.

Also, to address your tangential remark on malls, I side with the urban planners. See my blog entries Connecticut Supreme Court rules malls can block free speech and Privatizing of the public realm restricting RFID protesters.

Again, your analogy of space to the U.S. frontier is astute. Thinking about it some more, though, it just may be that individual plot ownership has no role in space due to its inhospitality. Taking your analogy of sea transport to space transport, I don't share your vision of competition, but rather imagine that the situation would still be monopolistic, controlled by corporations or government, or both. Namely, I expect space transport to be controlled similar to airlines today. All civil liberties are now gone in airports; there are excessive "security" taxes; some countries are cut off from airline service for strictly political reasons; etc.

To a certain extent, people need other people to survive. But the degree to which this is true in space (compared to the U.S. frontier) and the dependency on a likely transport monopoly (and monopolies on space homesteading equipment) leads me to believe that individual plot ownership in space would be meaningless even in the unlikely scenario that governments and corporations would allow it.

I expound on this a bit in my blog entry Suburban development: the new serfdom.

That is why "left vs. right", "conservative vs. liberal", "Republican vs. Democrat" in the U.S. is a false dichotomy -- the real battle should be over individual liberty vs. fascism, not over whether fascism should be in the form of large corporations or government.

I expound on this a bit in my blog entry Suburban development: the new serfdom.

That is why "left vs. right", "conservative vs. liberal", "Republican vs. Democrat" in the U.S. is a false dichotomy -- the real battle should be over individual liberty vs. fascism, not over whether fascism should be in the form of large corporations or government.

In 15 months, space station will have 1/4 MW of power, but hold just 3 people

Historically puberty happened later (and we still don't know why)

Interestingly, I just came upon this news bit on underreported.com:

Watching too much television may distort the hormonal balance of adolescents and push many of them into early puberty, say researchers.

Italian researchers found children denied access to television for just one week experienced a 30% jump in their melatonin levels.

The hormone is thought to prevent the early onset of puberty.

If confirmed, this would be the first sign of a direct physiological impact on television watching upon the young.

Historically puberty happened later (and we still don't know why)

Interestingly, I just came upon this news bit on underreported.com:

Watching too much television may distort the hormonal balance of adolescents and push many of them into early puberty, say researchers.

Italian researchers found children denied access to television for just one week experienced a 30% jump in their melatonin levels.

The hormone is thought to prevent the early onset of puberty.

If confirmed, this would be the first sign of a direct physiological impact on television watching upon the young.

Also, the FBI did specifically confirm that due to the multiple states involved, it would normally be their case, but that due to their new focus they could not handle it. So it's their word against yours that "'anti-terrorism' has nothing to do with it."

I have such little respect for the FBI now, that I will never lease or finance again, to ensure that the transaction stays within the same state and I retain access to redress.

Operation TIPS alive and well in Virginia

Plainclothes Detroit officer refused to show ID; severs fleeing woman's finger

As highlighted by slashdot.org, according to a mailing list posting (mirror):

From: Lauren Weinstein

[...] Subject: Warning to IP Readers: When "The Debate Show" Calls -- Hang Up!

[...] They wanted me to debate a known spammer (who they wouldn't identify at the time) regarding the scourge of spam. It would be fun she implied, since the audience would of course be on my side.

[...] Crossballs is a rigged "reality" show, where real guests, who have been kept in the dark about the show's real format, are paired off against actors (playing the debate opponents) for the amusement of the live audience. The stories I read from persons recently on the show included descriptions of crude, sexually-oriented verbal attacks (and worse, like being handed various sexual "apparatus") and concerns that their reputations would be ruined once the shows aired.

The nature of Crossballs is confirmed by a couple of other sources. According to a gopusa.com commentary:

This show is not "The Debate Show," as advertised and the name they use to procure panelists, but "Crossballs" a newly produced show for Comedy Central, owned by Viacom and MTV networks, and is a spoof of political debate shows that seeks to mock conservatives with actors posing as some of the panelists.

One such real panelist, who thought the show was going to be a serious debate show, was a conservative activist from California who prepared to appear on the show to talk about the 2nd amendment. Jim March, whose account we have attached, is a 2nd amendment activist and was mocked and ridiculed by a "psychologist" who said he had sexual issues and offered him a two month supply of penis enlargement pills if he gave up his guns.

Nowhere in the material for "The Debate Show" and the press releases for the upcoming "Crossballs" do they make the connection, or let you in on the joke that the "actor panelists" debate the real panelists, complete with props and "live feed" video designed to mock and make fun of the real panelists and their conservative views.

And according to a June 15, 2004 story from digitalspy.co.uk, an entertainment newsblog:

Debate shows on US cable news channels such as CNN's Crossfire and MSNBC's Hardball are to be "skewered" by a new Comedy Central show, Crossballs.

The new show will feature comedians posing as experts debating real people who don't realise that the show is a sham.

"Shot in front of a live audience, Crossballs is a smart, comedic spoof of programs such as Crossfire, Hardball with Chris Matthews, and the entire Fox News Network," explains Comedy Central.

The show premieres on Tuesday, July 6 at 7:30pm ET and will air for eight consecutive weeks.

In similar display of mockery, according to a Jun 5, 2004 dc.indymedia.org story:

A small but determined group of about 60 demonstrators displayed their anger and disgust in front of the offices of Arlington defense contractor, CACI last week.

CACI is the firm recently implicated in the report by U.S. Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba. CACI employees "were either directly or indirectly responsible for the abuse at Abu Ghraib," according to the report. Taguba strongly reco

The entertainment industry is also pursuing this through another vector: through WIPO. If the U.S. signs the new WIPO treaty, then Betamax will be overturned even without Hatch's bill. See my Nov. 8, 2003 blog entry U.S. corroborating with WIPO to overturn Betamax decision and also eliminate public domain.

In case you're fuzzy on U.S. copyright law, all created works automatically receive copyright, regardless of whether the work is officially registered with the U.S. copyright office. Many artists choose to give away their work.

Taking at face value the statements the MPAA is "educating" public schoool students with, downloading anything from ifilm.com would be illegal. ifilm.com, which is ranked by alexa.com in the top 2000 websites (out of more than 5 million ranked), distributes videos (such as movie shorts) that their creators have given permission to be distributed for free.

Surely the MPAA is not promulgating the outrageous statements portrayed in the Globe article? Well, an Oct. 17, 2003 press release by Junior Achievement, the organization entrusted by the MPAA to carry out its propaganda in the public schools, links to the MPAA's respectcopyrights.org site, which contains a page which states:

At the end of the day, when you get right down to it, downloading copyrighted movies off the Internet is illegal. It's against the law.

A more correct statement would have been "downloading copyrighted movies off the Internet against the wishes of the copyright holder is illegal."

A minor difference? Hardly. The MPAA is inculcating the concept in students that movies and videos should exist only in a commercial context. Instead, with the advent of cheap video technology, students should be encouraged to make their own amateur videos and share them over the Internet. Script writing, staging, lighting -- that would be real education.

Public schools are a place where students learn to consume rather than create.

We're going to have to start competing on price and that basically means devaluation of the currency.

Don't worry. The devaluation of American Currency has been outsourced too ...

Porn doesn't sneak into your phone, VCR, or cable TV: you have to call a 900 number, rent a video, or order pay per view.

• Razor Magazine suddenly started coming to my home every month. I have a feeling it might have been because I subscribed to Men's Fitness a decade ago -- when it was about fitness and not about sexual technique (I canceled when they switched for that reason).
• Walking through a mall and Victoria's Secret has a 12-foot high photo of a completely nude woman in the window.
• Stores display unshrouded soft porn
• South Beach Diet banner ads
• Spam (which you noted as your sole exception)
• Women jogging down the street in training bras. Folks, the first bra on TV was the 1986 Playtex cross-your-heart bra commercial -- 10 to 20 years after the so-called sexual revolution. Immodesty accelerated through the 90's.
• Even at the office -- before 1990, sleeveless dresses were considered improper work attire. They used to be called "sundresses." Now stores don't even sell dresses with sleeves.

No award should be given to a police force that directs its tallest members into what the police themselves refer to as a "goon squad" to break up demonstrations.