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cell phone reception in the tube: ass.

At least it's accidental, there. Here in the US they intentionally cut off service in the NYC subway because the terrorists might use cell phones to set off a bomb.

• Average lifespan of a windows computer - 4 minutes
• Average lifespan of a BSD computer 10 years.

Which do you think has a better TCO.

At $400/minute, I think even BillG would consider windows expensive.

Wow, if that's not a clear case Slashdot Group Think, I don't know what is. It's scary how some of you guys actually believe things like that.

Nielsen/NetRatings, which measures digital usage, says WMP is the most used Internet application, with 51.8 million users in February. More people use it than even unauthorized file-sharing program Kazaa -- 5.7 million, or America Online's Instant Messenger, which had 29.1 million users in February.

Real, with 30.6 million users, is the second-most-popular application.

link.

Stupid law, by the way. I guess it's meant to benefit the friends/family of the agent, as they can finally learn what the heck their spouse/whatever was up to.

(think about how often you charge your current car battery via AC to save fuel!).

The batteries in contemporary hybrids are a bit bigger than the 12 V Motomaster Eliminator under the hood of your 1983 Dodge Aries. It is in fact possible to tootle around the neighbourhood just drawing down the battery -- giddy Prius owners call it stealth mode.

Not at all. This article describes the situation at Altamount Pass in California. These are older, small-diameter and therefore high-RPM type turbines. As the article and countless others like it shows, they do kill birds, including hundreds of raptors. It is this very sort of turbine that one is likely to see in residential or urban applications. As you can see, the methology for determining bird mortality with any sort of turbine is simple: count the bodies. With the smaller turbines, there are many. With the larger one, there are few, because the birds can see the blades and avoid them. This is also well-documented, just look.

How did you jump to the conclusion that I am opposed to wind power in general based upon my misgivings about wind power in built-up areas?

And tin reply to your question: Many birds would be saved by replacing coal plant with wind turbines. Given the sundry collateral costs of coal-power, such as immense air pollution in the form of SO2, CO2, and CO, to say nothing of the radionucleides that get released from the coal, and the human and animal diseases caused by same; water pollution from mine tailings in coal-producing regions; deforestation and long-term ecological damage caused by strip-mining; mortality among coal miners, which is very, very high in the developing world; logistical costs of moving coal over long distances, all of which add up to make coal more expensive and less desirable than it appears, for avian and human beings alike.

How much of IBM's innovative chip design was pushed forward by Apple?

Almost none. Apple is less than 2% of IBM's PowerPC business.

Apple/Intel FAQ

According to USA Today, the retail price is around $2.25.

-c

We Americans just want pure unadulterated violence, no sex, no drugs!

What about rock 'n roll?

Silly question - ever since Britney (maybe even before the Beatles) it's been no sex, no drugs, no rock 'n roll - but lots of violence...

• Explosions In London - Who Stands To Gain?
  
• Explosions In London - Highly Suspicious Circumstances
  
• Who Knew? The Fed Just Fronted Wall St BIG Money...
  
• London Blasts - Overthrow Of American Republic - Pt 76
  
• Netanyahu Warned In Advance - Israelis Knew
  

"Every dollar invested in electric efficiency displaces between five and seven times as much carbon dioxide as each dollar invested in nuclear power, even assuming the significant advances in nuclear power technology," says Kyle Datta, managing director of research at the Rocky Mountain Institute.

And increased electric efficiency also pays off in increased capacity the power grid to support more people. And spins off benefits in mobility, for longer power cycles from the same batteries. These are the rewarding returns on energy investment, rather than building a new generation of discredited technologies.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2005-06 -28-deep-impact-cover_x.htm

Says team manager Rich Gramier of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory: "Basically, we have a bullet trying to hit a second bullet with a third bullet in the right place at the right time to watch."

It's shocking to me how little Americans know about corruption in their government and how the corruption has lowered the quality of their lives.

The U.S. government has weak accounting laws that allow hiding the true profitability of a company. That's how so many people lost money in the Merrill Lynch, Enron, Arthur Anderson (28,000 people lost their jobs.), Worldcom, Tyco, Adelphia, HealthSouth, and many other cases. But most people just don't care, and the U.S. government has still done little but prosecute a few of the most open and obvious perpetrators. No effective, fundamental changes have been made.

How about he nominates someone who has the crazy idea of actually reading and interpreting US law instead of legislating from the bench or looking to foreign law.

From 11/29/2004: Unprotected PCs can be hijacked in minutes

In contrast, GWB can't even pronounce "Nuclear".

Yeah, so he's from Texas. But at least he had better grades at Yale than John Kerry.

"We'll catch that wasc'lly Google! Huhuhuhuhuh...."

How sad... he's devolved from this to this and finally into Elmer Fudd...

What planet are you on, moron? The Democrats have always been the biggest water carriers for the entertainment industry, and have always received the lion's share of political donations from Hollywood fat cats (78% in 2002.)

Psychiatrists call it 'projection' when you accuse others of the same faults you have. I call it typical leftist ignorance and hypocrisy.

You stupid little children think George Bush is the black hole from whence all evil flows. I guess your tiny little minds can't wrap around the fact that a "progressive" politician could be as supine and venal a lackey for big business as any Republican.

-ccm

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technolog y/2003-09-16-intel_x.htm

AMD made most of the same charges in 2001 and the FTC dropped it in 2003.

Their names are Judith Miller and Matt Cooper.

Feel free to look up the same story on Google News if you want other sources. There are hundreds of articles about it.

So much for the fourth estate.

Worked quite well for Microsoft back in 1995. By the way, did you see the article about Microsoft and Toshiba cementing their HD DVD relationship?

Being a big player means being able to totally fsck-up the next generation of technology and still being able to walk away from it because your other enterprises are so wildly profitable you can afford the losses.

I thought so too, until I read these articles:

The problem with music (a.k.a. Some of your friends are probably already this f****d.)
Bye, bye, a piece of the pie

which are good when read in conjunction with Courtney Love's infamous speech to the Digital Hollywood online entertainment
conference.

Respecting the people's wishes, eh? I don't see Dubya pulling out of Iraq...somehow.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-06-12 -poll_x.htm?POE=NEWISVA

This just in:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-06-23-boy s-nj_x.htm

> I am not an american but I have the impression that all mr. Bush has done is take "freedom" away from america

Nonsense! America is the land of the free!
Why, here in the U.S. we are free to say anything we want about the government, complain all we want. Hell, we can even burn our flag.
It may not be "nice", but it's not against the law!

Huh? What's that you say?
Congress want to made burning the flag ILLEGAL?
Oh...
Never mind...

Sure. The database is "to help the military identify potential recruits." Of course it is.

Except that in another 50 years, or so, just about everyone who isn't in the database will have passed on or be too young to burn flags.

Gives a whole new meaning to "This is going on your permanent record!"

http://appleintelfaq.com/

What did Apple announce at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 6, 2005?

Apple announced that it is transitioning from PowerPC processors provided by IBM and Freescale (formerly Motorola) to x86 architecture processors from Intel. The first Intel-based Macs will ship before mid-2006, and the transition will be complete by the end of 2007.

Where can I find out more official information about this announcement?

Apple press release

Intel press release

WWDC keynote address (Transcript)

Why did Apple make this change?

The following scenario likely contributed to this decision:

IBM has been unable to meet its performance commitments for the PowerPC 970 family (G5) processors. In mid-2003, IBM promised 3 GHz G5s to Apple by mid-2004. As of mid-2005, 3 GHz G5s are still not available, over two years after the initial announcement, and over one year after the promised delivery.[1]

Meanwhile, Microsoft has announced that IBM will make 3.2 GHz triple-core G5 derivatives available to Microsoft for Xbox 360.[2] IBM is also concentrating efforts on chips for Nintendo Revolution and Sony PlayStation 3.[3, 3.1] With IBM concentrating on expensive high-end server class processors and the console and embedded markets, and with Apple at less than 2%[4] of IBM's PowerPC business, it was clear IBM's priorities were focused elsewhere.

Apple is also less than 3%[4] of Freescale's PowerPC business, with Freescale focusing on embedded, communications, and automotive markets. The priorities of IBM and Freescale do not coincide with performance and other needs of the traditional desktop and portable computing marketplace.

What has Apple done to prepare for this transition?

Apple has been publicly maintaining the core OS of Mac OS X, Darwin, for both PowerPC and x86 platforms since the release of Mac OS X. Internally, Apple has been secretly maintaining Mac OS X in its entirety and all Apple applications for both PowerPC and x86 for over 5 years, since before Mac OS X's public release.[5] Mac OS X's predecessors also ran on x86.

Apple has made available Xcode 2.1, which adds the capability of creating PowerPC/x86 universal binaries. Xcode 2.1 can be used on either PowerPC or x86 systems to create universal binaries. Application developers already using Xcode in most cases need only recompile their application with an additional checkbox adding x86 architecture support.

Apple has also licensed[6] QuickTransit from Transitive Corporation for Rosetta, a realtime binary translation system to support PowerPC binaries seamlessly on x86 hardware. The current performance of Rosetta

http://appleintelfaq.com/

What did Apple announce at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 6, 2005?

Apple announced that it is transitioning from PowerPC processors provided by IBM and Freescale (formerly Motorola) to x86 architecture processors from Intel. The first Intel-based Macs will ship before mid-2006, and the transition will be complete by the end of 2007.

Where can I find out more official information about this announcement?

Apple press release

Intel press release

WWDC keynote address (Transcript)

Why did Apple make this change?

The following scenario likely contributed to this decision:

IBM has been unable to meet its performance commitments for the PowerPC 970 family (G5) processors. In mid-2003, IBM promised 3 GHz G5s to Apple by mid-2004. As of mid-2005, 3 GHz G5s are still not available, over two years after the initial announcement, and over one year after the promised delivery.[1]

Meanwhile, Microsoft has announced that IBM will make 3.2 GHz triple-core G5 derivatives available to Microsoft for Xbox 360.[2] IBM is also concentrating efforts on chips for Nintendo Revolution and Sony PlayStation 3.[3, 3.1] With IBM concentrating on expensive high-end server class processors and the console and embedded markets, and with Apple at less than 2%[4] of IBM's PowerPC business, it was clear IBM's priorities were focused elsewhere.

Apple is also less than 3%[4] of Freescale's PowerPC business, with Freescale focusing on embedded, communications, and automotive markets. The priorities of IBM and Freescale do not coincide with performance and other needs of the traditional desktop and portable computing marketplace.

What has Apple done to prepare for this transition?

Apple has been publicly maintaining the core OS of Mac OS X, Darwin, for both PowerPC and x86 platforms since the release of Mac OS X. Internally, Apple has been secretly maintaining Mac OS X in its entirety and all Apple applications for both PowerPC and x86 for over 5 years, since before Mac OS X's public release.[5] Mac OS X's predecessors also ran on x86.

Apple has made available Xcode 2.1, which adds the capability of creating PowerPC/x86 universal binaries. Xcode 2.1 can be used on either PowerPC or x86 systems to create universal binaries. Application developers already using Xcode in most cases need only recompile their application with an additional checkbox adding x86 architecture support.

Apple has also licensed[6] QuickTransit from Transitive Corporation for Rosetta, a realtime binary translation system to support PowerPC binaries seamlessly on x86 hardware. The current performance of Rosetta

Here's what I want to know: How do you work with raw rock, when there's no gravity?

They will do all the same things that they do when working underwater and underground.
Why do think astronauts train underwater?

If you need to transport stuff while keeping it contained, you can use an Archimedean screw, which oddly enough, can also be used as a drill bit.

The problem, as I see it, has many facets: 1) The music comanies start by perceiving everyone as a possible theif. Their general policies and actions have shown this.

2) a lot of people ARE, in fact, "stealing" "to stick it to the man." and who can blame them? Just by taking wide averages--say, $18/CD with about 20 songs, you're looking at about...a dollar a song. This includes packaging, literature, etc. Or, go to iTunes and spend...about a dollar a song. And they're (the music industry) still claims their prices should go up. Consistently.

I don't know about your neighborhood, but 'round here (Philly) the radio market sucks. There's no real variety, even with the stations that claim a "huge archive of music." What would YOU do?

Actually he'll say...

Some are saying it.

"The future is fun! The future is fair! You may already have won! You may already be there! Welcome to the future!"

Okay, let's use that metaphor. The postman has 50 lbs of mail for you every day. 45 lbs are fraudulent or advertising some sort of snake oil/porn site. Your mailbox holds 7 lbs of mail. The postmaster has a list of people who send mail to every email address on the face of the earth and a good number of addresses that don't exist. The postman takes those sending addresses and uses them to weed out roughly 40 lbs of mail, so your mailbox is only half full of crap instead of 90%. Unfortunately, you just lost 30% of your mail because it wouldn't fit.

Then deliver 7 pounds of mail per day over a 7 (and some fraction) day period. This is totally irrelevant though, because if something won't fit in your mailbox, the postman will come to your door and tell you about the package or packages and require you to sign for them because they couldn't be transmitted to their legal receptacle (the mailbox).

Irrelevant. Nobody expects that email is a reliable transport, and sending mail is no proof of receipt. The legal status of email is largely irrelevant to the question.

Um, what?

I did a google search on e-mail site:.gov and came up with tons of results. Here's one:
http://www.doiu.nbc.gov/orientation/email.html
This page describes the Department of the Interior's email policy.
They say: e-mail systems are highly reliable for transmitting messages.
They also say: Q4. If my outgoing message is a record, should I ask for a return receipt to make sure that the person I sent it to got it?

A4. It is not necessary to ask for a return receipt or read receipt in e-mail any more than it is necessary in hard copy. We don't send all letters certified mail. If it is important to document for the record the time that a message was opened, then that receipt must be retained along with the message for as long as the message is retained. You also need to have some means of linking the receipt to the message so it is clear what outgoing message the receipt documents.

So they acknowledge openly that the mail could be intercepted in transit, just as postal mail could, but they still consider it to be highly reliable.

From a state government website (Kentucky):
http://www.kdla.ky.gov/recmanagement/tutorial/emai l.htm
Electronic Mail (e-mail) is an important communication tool for conducting government business in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Increasingly, government agencies use e-mail systems to distribute memos, circulate drafts, disseminate directives, transfer official documents, send external correspondence, and support various aspects of government operations.

Disseminate directives? Transfer OFFICIAL documents?

The office of the attorney general in New York began accepting document service by email in 2003:
http://www.oag.state.ny.us/serviceag/serviceag.htm l
Except as set forth in paragraph 2, below, beginning January 1, 2003, the Attorney General's Office will participate in the Court of Claims' Filing by Electronic Means (FBEM) pilot project and will accept service by e-mail of the following documents

Digging back into the internet stone age, is this article from the year 2000, Judge allows subpoenas delivered via email. If Y2K wasn't your bag though, 2002 saw a different judge uphold the validity of process serving by e-mail.

Do I need to keep going to illustrate how totally wrong you are not only about the reliability of email, but of the perceived reliability of email? (I shouldn't have to, but this is slashdot, after all)

As to the l

I have to respectfully disagree and say that it was [adult swim] on cartoon network. They aired it for years late at night, rebuilt the fanbase, and then Fox suddenly "changed their minds".

You'd think of some former navy seal can get boobs and grow his hair some inc and some peircings wouldn't be a big deal.

First of all, Bush isn't defunding NASA. He is, infact, doing the opposite. He increased NASA's budget 5% last year, and plans 2 more 5% increases in the next 2 years. Far more than Clinton can claim.

Bush's budget request for Project Constellation, the product of his "brave speech," is $6.6 billion over the next 5 years.

The CEV, part of Project Constellation, will have the concepts from the major contractors completed and sent to NASA by the end of this summer.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-01-13 -bush-nasa_x.htm http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/14/tech/mai n593063.shtml

I would like you see your source on that these men were engineers and that they're being replaced by businessmen. I would find it hard to beleive that a man with a doctorate, 5 masters, and 1 bachelor degree in sciences and engineering would purposely sabotage NASA.

I recommend you get your news from a source other than democraticunderground.

Be careful. Those crime shows sometimes do things that aren't feasible or possible in reality. See this USA Today article or this article on CSI Files

Yes. A little perspective here, please. Whatever you think of this proposal to expand the Patriot Act, recognize that it is only a proposal. The original article states:

The FBI has gained new powers to demand documents from companies without a judge's approval...

The FBI has gained nothing. No laws have been changed. There is no new secret, Judge-free subpoena power. It is possible that there will be such a power in the future, but this is just one of the very first steps needed to get it done.

Other commenters in this thread have bemoaned that poor state of education in the US, that so many citizens don't know what rights they have. Well, it's not quite as grand as all that, but here's a little civics lesson for those of you whose main political information comes from /.:

Laws in this country must be passed in both the Senate and the House. The process is often very messy and cantankerous. Even a very popular bill can get stalled using different parlementary techniques, and it is not uncommon that a bill that looked unbeatable in January will end up dying in some comittee and not passing by the end of the year. More controversial bills are even harder to get through, and there is a very complicated chess game that goes on in which bills are ammended and revised as they move through the process.

This particular bill apparently passed the Senate Intelligence Commite, 11-4, a couple of days ago. If you look in more serious news accounts, they make it a lot more clear that no new powers have been granted, and this is but merely the opening salvo in a long Congressional negotiation on this topic.

From here, the bill travels to the Senate Judiciary Committe, where "Feinstein and other Democrats planned to again offer amendments." Even if it makes it through there as-is, it would need to be considered by the whole Senate. Even if it passes there, a parallel bill will have been going through an analogous process in the House. Those two bills probably won't be the same by the time they pass both houses of Congress, so from there it's off to the joint committee to come up with a "compromise version" that everyone expects will pass both houses. Finally, the House of Representatives and Senate both vote on the final version, and, if it passes, it goes to the President for his signature.

It is quite impossible to say at this point if some provision voted into a bill in an early Senate committee is going to make it into law.

I believe concerns about this particular provision of the bill to be a bit misplaced. As best as I can determine, this takes the existing system for issuing subpoenas to companies for relevant documentation that exists in "foreign intelligence" cases and applies the same standard in domestive "terrorism" cases. So, for example, if the CIA turned up evidence that someone trained in Pakistan and is a member of Al Qaeda, as it stands right now, they could issue a subpoena without a Judge's prior approval to gather information from (i.e.) the phone company to try to build a case against him. However, if the FBI determined that a purely domestic terrorist was planning on blowing something up, they would not be able to use the same power.

I would like to see a frank and open debate in this country about the privacy and expectation of privacy of records owned by companies. Under the existing US Constitution and laws, if I make a phone call, the record of that phone call belongs to the phone company, not me. The phone company has no fourth amendment protection against "unreasonable searches and seziures," and it is therefore much easier, from a constitutional basis, to get a warrent to request some documents. As well, the phone company has no particular interest in fighting such requests, so it complies with the

There, I said it. What's with all the anon coward BS? If you wanna call football players girls, do it right: GIIIIIRL!

I have to add that they're some mighty girls...

56% of football players are obese
26% are severely obese
3% are morbidly obese

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2005-03-01-nfl -players-obese_x.htm

Now don't give me that "it's just BMI" crap. Have you seen the offensive and defensive tacklers on TV? Big fat fucks... that's an athlete? You've got to be kidding me. Next thing they're going to start introducing sumo wrestlers into the NFL.

Then look at tennis players. Sure, they get injured a lot (from overplaying), but each is as fit as you get... The top couple hundred players in the world are perfect examples of what an athlete should be.

• UFOs (34%)
• ghosts (also 34%)
• astrology (29%)
• reincarnation (25%)
• witches (24%)
• miracles (82%)
• heaven (85%) and
• god (92%) (Fox News poll, June 2004)

• 44% believe civil liberties should be restricted for Muslims; and
• 27% favor requiring Muslim Americans to register with the federal government.(Cornell Universdity poll, December 2004)

• 55% (and 67% of Bush voters) beleive God created humans as we currently exist, without any need for evolution; and only
• only 13% do not beleive God was somehow involved in human evolution. (CBS News poll, November 2004)

• 88 percent of U.S. adults believe that Saddam Hussein would have made weapons of mass destruction if he could have (down slightly from 90% in November).
• 76 percent believe that the Iraqis are better off now than they were under Saddam Hussein (same as November).
• 64 percent believe that history will give the U.S. credit for bringing freedom and democracy to Iraq (up slightly from 63% in November).
• 64 percent believe that Saddam Hussein had strong links to Al Qaeda (up slightly from 62% in November).
• 61 percent believe that Iraq, under Saddam Hussein, was a serious threat to U.S. security (down slightly from 63% in November).
  

More surprising perhaps are the large numbers (albeit not majorities) who believe the following claims not made by the president and which virtually no experts believe to be true:

• 47 percent believe that Saddam Hussein helped plan and support the hijackers who attacked the U.S. on September 11, 2001 (up six percentage points from November).
• 44 percent actually believe that several of the hijackers who attacked the U.S. on September 11 were Iraqis (up significantly from 37% in November).
• 36 percent believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the U.S. invaded (down slightly from 38% in November).

Do you know the exact text of the "oppressing christians" criterion for identifying "the" antichrist? Of course, it's probably translated into English from Latin, and probably from Greek to that, and possibly even from Aramaic to that. And every step introduces a translator's chance for mistake/bias/relevance interpretation. But I'd like to know what christians *today*, who would be the oppressed, are prepared to expect from such a character. Specifically, whether the oppression would be exclusive to christians, and whether defined by their christianity, or a necessary correlate to it.

Moreover, I believe (at least one) antichrist prophecy predicts that some christians would recognize "the" antichrist before the unmistakable havoc they cause, while some would recognize it later - and others would not at all, christian or otherwise. Do you know if that is consistent with the prophecy? And whether there are christians who might agree with me that Bush fits these prophecies? For example, I've read reports suggesting that the last Pope thought Bush could be "the Antichrist". I wonder how widespread is that belief. Because these characters, and their effect on the world, is composed entirely of that belief, in the minds of the people at that time.

FWIW, I think Bush and his team are as skilled at gaining power as they are unskilled at using it. But they are completely without ethics in defending their power from threats. Even if you don't believe that they were actively complicit, or knowingly passive, in the 2001 planebombings that justify so much of their subsequent power, their abuse of it is clear. Just a couple of weeks ago, Tom Ridge (the first Homeland Security director, until Bush's reelection) stated publicly that many "terror alerts" were based on "flimsy evidence", unjustified in his view. But he was overruled by the others in the group which decides to issue alerts: Rumsfeld/Defense, Ashcroft/Justice, Mueller/FBI, Tenet/CIA, and Powell/State. It's clear that the complaints at the time from the skeptical "opposition" in America were accurate: Bush used fake terror alerts for political gain. If his current slide continues, and threatens either Congressional votes (like picking Supreme Court justices) or the 2006 Congressional elections, I'd expect Bush to unleash some kind of really bad event to motivate his "base". Like an attack that inambiguously "oppresses christians", to justify some kind of retaliation in their name.

At the very least, it's going to be a long 3 more years, even if they include a Democrat retaking of Congress (or just the House), and a miraculous impeachment.

Someone really needs to put up a web site shaming everyone who's used 9/11 to advance their own interests or to demonize the opposition as terrorists.

From The Demagogue Files...

"Interpol believes there is a significant link between counterfeiting and terrorism in locations where there are entrenched terrorist groups."
--Jack Valenti, MPAA Chief (Source: senate.gov)

"There are also indicators that some associates of terrorist groups may be involved in IPR [Intellectual Property Right] crime"
--Lieutenant John Stedman [View PDF], Sheriff's Department, County of Los Angeles (source: senate.gov)

"Anti-spammers are terrorists at heart and attack websites and email accounts of companies wishing to bring their products and services to the general public via email, an enviromentally sound, REMARKABLE medium!"
--StealthLaunch/PopLaunch, mass-marketing firm
(source: the Register)

The National Education Association is "a terrorist organization"
--Rod Paige, Education Secretary
(source: usatoday.com)

"I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way -- all of them who have tried to secularize America -- I point the finger in their face and say "you helped this happen."
Rev. Pat Robertson, Religious Leader (source: commondreams.org)

[Discussing liberal Federal judges]
"Over 100 years, I think the gradual erosion of the consensus that's held our country together is probably more serious than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings"
[Followup question asks if liberal judges really are the worst threat America has faced in 400 years - worse than Nazi Germany, Japan and the Civil War...]
"Yes, I really believe that,"
Rev. Pat Robertson, Religious Leader (source: nydailynews.com)

[When asked about abortion in the US]
"I think after September 11th the American people are valuing life more and realizing that we need policies to value the dignity and worth of every life. And President Bush has worked to say, let's be reasonable, let's work to value life, let's try to reduce the number of abortions, let's increase adoptions. The fundamental difference between us and the terror network we fight is that we value every life. It's the founding conviction of our country, that we're endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights, the right to life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Unfortunately our enemies in the terror network, as we're seeing repeatedly in the headlines these days, don't value any life, not even the innocent and not even their own," she added."
Karen Hughes, Bush Campaign advisor (source: cnn.com)

"It's absolutely essential that eight weeks from today, on Nov. 2, we make the right choice, because if we make the wrong choice then the danger is that we'll get hit again and we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States"
--Dick Cheney, Vice President of the US (source: about.com)

"America's under attack and so are we."
--Kenneth Lay, CEO, Enron (source: Enron: The Smartest Guys In the Room)

Anyone got

> You forgot about the references to Bush in the Darth Vader
> dialog.

The dialog is superficial. Calls for dramatic absolutes are common when dictators are trying to gain power, as well as anyone with extreme viewpoints. It helps them manage the cognitive dissonance.

Actually all the Star Wars movies are describing, among other things, how Democracy can fall to fascism.

In summary, Palpatine starts a fake war[1] (where he controlled both sides[2]) in order to get elected and stay in office[3] by appealing to people's fear and rallying nationalism [4]. He convinces the Senate to vote Emergency Powers to him [5] in order to consolidate more power under himself. He finally declares the end of the Republic [6] in order to bring "peace" to the galaxy.

The movies are not intended to directly catalog Bush or his policies. The original plot was written in the 1970s, and it was inspired by a number of events in history, including Hitler's rise to power and the Vietnam War. The way we humans move from democracy to fascism happens in roughly the same way each time.

It just so happens that it can be argued that Bush has been following the same pattern as any drive towards fascism. Thus, any parallels to the current state of the U.S. is purely coincidental.

-----

[1] Whoops! No weapons of mass destruction found. Our bad.

[2] Didn't we used to fund and support Saddam Hussein?

[3] Tom Ridge finally admits that the Department of Homeland Security twice questionably raised the terror alert status in order to prop up Bush's poll ratings during the election.

[4] Freedom fries, anyone?

[5] Secret sneak and peek searches via the PATRIOT Act, anyone?

[6] "If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier," Bush said, pausing and then joking, "just so long as I'm the dictator."

Hi, I'm Blake Ross. (that's me on the left). You might know me as gorgeous teen leader of world class browser Firefox. Hey my buddies on the team like Ben Goodger call me "El Spicko" cause I'm one greasy spick mother. I even got a pass to say 'nigger', sometimes I call my spick brothers and homies, I say "hey my nigger".

When I drive around town with the hood down and the system cranking, I say to the ladies "how you doing girls?" and they say "Hey El Spicko we love you" and I just say "Hey". I used to work in kebab shop for my cousin but now I work on my browser Firefox which I invented.

All you fags who keep saying Firefox is shit, you don't know shit. Kiss my spick nigger butt is what i say. Hey. We do what the fuck I want, it's my business I run. hey.

Have you seen my photo on wired magazine ? Nice. My friend Ben, you see it's like this..he's a bit of a fat faggot and he likes all the geek stuff, me I'm more a ladies' man, i got plenty of pussy to choose from. hey.

Listen I got to go, my cousin was busted for dealing crack, and mother was a whore but I tell you something truthfull, the way I did it, the way i became the boss of Firefox and changed the world, well you see it's a gift, not everyone has it like I do, but maybe you too can make something of your lives like me one day



later, here is some more free photos for my fans...

peace

http://images.usatoday.com/tech/_photos/2005/01/24 /ross-main.jpg

http://www.bibi.org/box/2005/janeiro/the_firefox_e xplosion.jpg

I was in a hurry to get the post on here, so I missed the link in the geek.com story to the original article (non-Coral) at USA Today. That still doesn't change the fact that this kid got three months of a deferred jail sentence, three years of probation, 200 hours of community service (for those of you with a 40-hour a week job, that's five weeks off from work, or three months of weekends), $5,400 in fines, and he must take a class on copyright at the University (presumably at his own expense of time and money), and avoid file-sharing programs (I don't see any stipulation that the avoiding of file-sharing programs is limited to illegal downloads).

And in the article, it says that he was lucky that he was just a kid. If he had been older, the penalties would have been stiffer, including a mandatory three month jail sentence up front.

Oh, and I dug up the story from February 10 about the comparison between shoplifting and copyright infringement. Here is a link (non-Coral ) to the original article.

Hi, I'm Blake Ross. You might know me as gorgeous teen leader of world class browser Firefox. Hey my buddies on the team like Ben Goodger call me "El Spicko" cause I'm a greasy spick mother. I even got a pass to say 'nigger', sometimes I call my spick brothers and homies, I say "hey my nigger".

When I drive around town with the hood down and the system cranking, I say to the ladies "how you doing girls?" and they say "Hey El Spicko we love you" and I just say "Hey". I used to work in kebab shop for my cousin but now I work on my browser Firefox which I invented.

All you fags who keep saying Firefox is shit, you don't know shit. Kiss my spick nigger butt is what i say. Hey. We do what the fuck I want, it's my business I run. hey.

Hey have you seen my photo on wired magazine ? Nice. My friend Ben, you see it's like this..he's a bit of a fat faggot and he likes all the geek stuff, me I'm more a ladies' man, i got plenty of pussy to choose from. hey.

Listen I got to go, my cousin was busted for dealing crack, and mother was a whore but I tell you something truthfull, the way I did it, the way i became the boss of Firefox and changed the world, well you see it's a gift, not everyone has it like I do, but maybe you too can make something of your lives like me one day

later, here is some more free photos for my fans...

peace

http://www.bibi.org/box/2005/janeiro/the_firefox_e xplosion.jpg

http://images.usatoday.com/tech/_photos/2005/01/24 /ross-main.jpg

Hi, I'm Blake Ross. You might know me as gorgeous teen leader of world class browser Firefox. Hey my buddies on the team like Ben Goodger call me "El Spicko" cause I'm a greasy spick mother. I even got a pass to say 'nigger', sometimes I call my spick brothers and homies, I say "hey my nigger".

When I drive around town with the hood down and the system cranking, I say to the ladies "how you doing girls?" and they say "Hey El Spicko we love you" and I just say "Hey". I used to work in kebab shop for my cousin but now I work on my browser Firefox which I invented.

All you fags who keep saying Firefox is shit, you don't know shit. Kiss my spick nigger butt is what i say. Hey. We do what the fuck I want, it's my business I run. hey.

Hey have you seen my photo on wired magazine ? Nice. My friend Ben, you see it's like this..he's a bit of a fat faggot and he likes all the geek stuff, me I'm more a ladies' man, i got plenty of pussy to choose from. hey.

Listen I got to go, my cousin was busted for dealing crack, and mother was a whore but I tell you something truthfull, the way I did it, the way i became the boss of Firefox and changed the world, well you see it's a gift, not everyone has it like I do, but maybe you too can make something of your lives like me one day

later, here is some more free photos for my fans...

peace

http://www.bibi.org/box/2005/janeiro/the_firefox_e xplosion.jpg

http://images.usatoday.com/tech/_photos/2005/01/24 /ross-main.jpg

After years of study but little progress reducing bird kills, environmentalists have sued to force turbine owners to take tough corrective measures. The companies, at risk of federal prosecution, say they see the need to protect birds. "Once we finally realized that this issue was really serious, that we had to solve it to move forward, we got religion," says George Hardie, president of G3 Energy.

The size of the annual body count -- conservatively put at 4,700 birds -- is unique to this sprawling, 50-square-mile site in the Diablo Mountains between San Francisco and the agricultural Central Valley because it spans an international migratory bird route regulated by the federal government. The low mountains are home to the world's highest density of nesting golden eagles.

1. I have several e-mail accounts to deal with
2. I chat on IRC daily
3. I follow several USENET news groups
4. I routinely post on a variety of message boards
5. I subscribe to Mental Floss, SysAdmin Magazine and Columbus Monthly
6. I read /. and technocrat and fark and El Reg and Something Awful and Google News and Groklaw and The Onion and Maddox and Ars Technica and USA Today and NewsForge every single day
7. I use Stumble Upon to find random, new and interesting web sites
8. ...AND I CAN'T GET ENOUGH!!!

Wow you really are a cockmuncher aren't you? Such a small minded individual to assume anyone from Texas is dumb. lesse... in Austin alone... AMD Dell Microsoft Samsung Motorola/Freescale/Metrowerks/StarCore ARM Cirrus Logic Sigmatel etc... And yet you're STILL pissed Gore lost the election. take a looke at the following map Joe... http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/vot e2004/countymap.htm Notice that little lone blue dot in the heart of Texas? That's Austin. Get a little edu-ma-cation before you rip an entire state. Oh by the way... we are the only state in the union that's allowed to fly our state flag at the same height as the US flag.