Slashdot Mirror

It's phony: "detective Stu Pitt" , "Detective Laughlin Foo". See here: http://altwire.utne.com/rt_story/occupy_new/the-reference-to-the-names-detective-stu/713974354a762f614343786d654a43444144764b72513d3d?

Well, everything we put into our bodies is a chemical, even O2 and H2O.

The question is, how harmful are these chemicals? The flour is actually probably the most harmful ingredient in the bread. Our digestive tract isn't really equipped to process any kind of wheat unlike most herbivores (which we are NOT, in spite of what vegetarians/vegans/peta tells you) and it does have a substance that is rather toxic to our intestines - gluten (which by the way, they almost always list as a separate ingredient, even though it is part of the flour.)

Though probably worse than flour is bleached flour, which happens to have most of the nourishment removed from it, so you mostly just end up with the bad stuff.

Soy is also bad for you, pretty much on par with flour if not worse, and bread often includes it. Yeah, I know, the Chinese lived off of it for some long assed time, and so did blah blah other culture. These guys lived off of it because they literally had nothing else to eat, so either eat soy or starve. The Irish lived off of eating grass for a while as well, but I don't see anybody eating that, primarily because it mostly just goes right through you. Unlike say cows, we only have a single chamber stomach, and it pretty much doesn't do shit to break down the grass into anything that our intestines can absorb. The hippies had it wrong, stay away from soy.

http://www.utne.com/2007-07-01/Science-Technology/The-Dark-Side-of-Soy.aspx?page=3

Your homemade bread might include soy as well, namely from the oil you put in the pan to keep the dough from sticking to it, and most vegetable oils include soy as an ingredient (especially the cheap ones.)

To be honest, it's best to avoid bread entirely. Beef for protein and salad are generally the best things you can eat, dress it with extra virgin olive oil and vinegar.

Better than that, replace the beef with ostrich meat if it is available where you live, tastes much better, more nutritious, and is very lean. Plus if you're an eco geek, ostriches require less resources to raise than cows. If nobody sells it locally, you'll pay a lot for it unfortunately.

http://products.mercola.com/produce/free-range-ostrich/

Plus, since we're talking about a very small amount, it would not hurt all of the retirees who were suckered into 401ks and Roth IRAs instead of proper pensions.

Suckered? I wasn't suckered into anything. I was left with no choice. My company, and 1000's of others, are discontinuing traditional pensions, and replacing them with yearly contributions to employee's 401k plans. It won't be long before the only people left with pension plans are Union Workers. Read More Here: http://www.utne.com/archives/TheMysteryoftheDisappearingPension.aspx And here's a view from the other side: http://www.mrc.org/bmi/news/2006/_Pension_Promises_the_Death_of_the_American_Dream_.html

It blends in nicely with the $7,600 coffee maker.

Keitai shosetsu

A police state is when someone can ask the Department of Homeland Security to arrest Democrats. Don't waste time worrying about employee IDs.

Yep, darn nice place. Not just saying it because I'm from there :)

I know I posted it before, but still makes a good read:

Kerala Enigma
Kerala Model

I remember how quickly things have changed in Kerala over the past few years. It is a good environment for open source to take root. I graduated High School in 1999 (in Oman) and before moving to the US to start college, I spent four months in Kerala - the longest I've ever spent. Back then to get access to the internet, you had to go to Ernakulam, which is about a hour-long car drive from my hometown. When my sister went to India in 2002, there was an Internet Cafe 15 minutes from our house. Broadband too. It only took three years. When I went there in 2004, there were even more internet cafes, and when I went back there again in May there were Internet Cafes all OVER the place - most people are well-versed with the internet and just computers in general. Another thing that you can find in Kerala is computer institutes - all over the place. Billboards advertising training in C/C++/Java/Webdesign etc. etc. Kerala already has a good presence in Open Source (Malayalam Open Source Software, More Malayalam Open Source). A lot of this might be due to the fact that Kerala is the most literate state in India, and also one of the most politically aware. A Malayalee's day starts with a look at the morning newspaper. Also because of the cost-benefits in general, and the fact that Kerala has a penchant for communism, open source will find a good environment to thrive. Monopolies... maybe not so much. Finally, the bulk of the microsoft software is pirated, and with all the validation stuff Microsoft has for their software, it would be easier to make the switch to open source. Then there is also the fact that recently Microsoft conducted a sort of raid in Kerala to look for illegal copies of Microsoft software.

Of course, all this might go down the drain due to the fact that even the most well-intentioned ideas can be disrupted by the notorious hartals (strikes).

Kerala - the state with the highest literacy rate in India. And one of the two states with a democratically elected communist government.

Compared to the rest of India, the state is much more advanced. It's the subject of what economists call the Kerala Enigma.

I'm sure there are a lot of benefits. Kerala might be poised to become another IT hub in India. There are computer courses and classes almost EVERYWHERE in India. I remember when I visited my hometown this may when I was on R&R from Iraq - it's changed quite a bit over the past few years. The people are a lot more tech savvy and there's a LOT of interest in Open Source stuff - mainly due to cost benefits. Hopefully Malayalees look to Open Source as an alternative for M$ - it will be a good boost for Open source.

I agree. According to this, this guy is a college drop-out.

There needs to be a new rule in society: If you can't graduate from college these days, you're not allowed to suggest scientific theories.

The pipeline through Afghanistan has already been started:
http://www.paknews.com/flash.php?id=8&date1=2003-0 2-23

Last Sunday the CBS show "60 Minutes" discussed the conflict of interest. I'm not the only one who thinks there is conflict of interest. 50 years ago, President Eisenhower warned about the "Military-Industrial Complex".

See Halliburton Makes a Killing on Iraq War
(Brown and Root is a subsidiary of Halliburton)
http://www.utne.com/webwatch/2003_39/news/10427-1. html
"The Bush-Cheney team has turned the United States into a family business", says Harvey Wasserman, author of The Last Energy War.

Salon isn't that liberal or progressive. They claimed/tried to be progressive, even eclectic, which the Utne Reader has always done so much better, both print & online www.utne.com FREE. Salon painted MIT Prof Noam Chomsky as a lunatic or the anti-Christ because he describes US foreign & domestic policy as it is, and in plain language, so you don't need degrees in history, politics, or economics to understand. He's universally reviled by right wing conservatives because he tells the truth and backs it up with evidence (footnotes in his books are quite numerous). Even mentioning his name is taboo for commercial broadcast media (really!), for reasons you can infer. Salon's persistent attacks on Chomsky show they are run by nuts. The attacks are full of so much shit it becomes humorous when you start counting, except for the fact that a lot of people actually believe it, because it's on Salon. Therefore it is tragic.

The Utne Reader is the Anti-Reader's Digest--including extreme positions in every direction (not "both" sides which assumes only 2 sides exist), it is eclectic, & the selections aren't sanitized crap for retired people who miss the good old days. I use Chomsky & Utne as examples because I'm an authority on them.

Salon simply wasted a ton of money, had plenty of "liberal" stories, but are right wing (a la Rush Limbaugh*) on a few of the more esoteric (important) topics. They do that particularly on topics of which most readers have little prior knowledge (or depth of understanding), therefore don't notice the profound bias (and reversal from "being liberal"). The Chomsky attacks are just one example. Chomsky's not interested in fame, fortune, or power, just truth & justice.
I cite them because they were so viciously construed that they simply could NOT be an accident, or a difference of opinion. The managers of Salon are greedy turds, the liquid kind. You can't polish a turd. You have to wait, then use spray paint.

Omission is the predominant error (tactic) of the generally conservative media in America. They constantly call themselves & each other liberal, but if they really were liberal, why would they do that? They're too conservative to ever even mention proportional representation (USA is strictly geographic representation.) It's called Public Relations, an industry which is far bigger (even per capita) in the USA, than any other country. One book, co-authored by Prof Chomsky, studied the "liberal bias theory" and concluded that most media, especially broadcast, are very conservative (the First Amendment does not apply unless you OWN a broadcast license). Inclusion of the occasional naked breast or being less conservative that the prez on a couple of issues, or allowing Howard Stern & Love Line on the radio does NOT make it liberal. All the porn in the world does not make a medium liberal. The only consistently "liberal & progressive" programs are Alternative Radio www.AlternativeRadio.org & www.NewDimensions.org, found on most public radio stations. PBS (TV) has a few programs that are often or usually progressive &/or liberal, but not consistently (I may be wrong--haven't done a comprehensive evaluation for 2 years now). Any progressive/liberal news outlet would at least occasionally remind us that 32,000 people starve to death each day, 60,000 die from bad water, plus 74 species go extinct. And while >20% of US adults are functional illiterates, millions are homeless, etc, we need a whole fucking war to stop Hussein (erh, I mean distract Americans from their obesity) while a single missile would get rid of him, most of his chiefs, and maybe a thousand civilians. We spent a fortune (most of it borrowed from our children by Reagan) on GPS satellites so we can hit any particular window or door, anywhere on the planet, and now we can't use them? Have a nice day (sucker).

I get Canadian TV news, which makes US TV news look like Mickey mouse with a suit & tie. They actually deal with real news every day (what a concept!). They have less weather, sports, what the president "said", etc. thereby more time for actual news. The FCC banned all cable TV companies from adding Canadian channels a few years ago unless they pay 5 percent of their GROSS income as a "fee". So much for diversity. Freedom of speech is not right to hear or watch. 200 channels of shit is not progress. A free alternative to Salon is www.alternet.org

* Rush (the fat rat bastard) Limbaugh's main demographic is undereducated, underemployed 20-40 year old white males, who appreciate placing the blame on women, affirmative actions, "the" government, etc., as long as it's not them.

Beware of republicans posing as humans. Party Naked in the church of your Choice. If god wanted you to be naked she'd make you born that way. Self-indulgence is not a virtue. Pollution is not a theory. Recycling is not a fad. It's not cool to be fat, stupid, & arrogant.

And the reason the cockpit doors weren't closed & locked, as the FAA repeatedly recommended: "that would be an unnecessary financial burden on the industry" (in other words, FAA recommendations can't conflict with short term profits, & market forces will solve almost everything).

"Judged in terms of the power, range, novelty and influence of his thought, Noam Chomsky is arguably the most important intellectual alive today." --NY Times book review/

Here is a mirror.

All things are imperfect. Nothing that exists is without imperfections. When we look closely at things, we see the flaws. The sharp edge of a razor blade, when it is magnified, reveals pits, chips, and variegations. And as things begin to break down and approach the primordial state, they become even less perfect, more irregular, and perhaps more lovely.

--Exquisite Decay

The non-seed producing crops are a short-term market owner. At the moment, you buy cheap gengeneered corn because you have to buy it every year. But in the short-term future (probably w/i the next few years, even) home-built hacks are going to appear. Selling genes is like selling code; it's basically just information.

This will be a huge party for the clever types who are willing to break laws to work around biotech-giant companies. If you think this is unlikely, look at this article from Utne Reader. Home biolabs are just around the corner. If someone wanted to tinker with a GM corn variety, all they would need to do is get one kernel of that corn, and they could pretty easily convince a crop to produce viable seeds.

The Utne article points out that animal biotech is virtually impossible at home, but that plant biotech is comparatively simple. Soon enough, we'll be seeing a host of patent violation lawsuits attacking websites that give step-by-step instructions on how to re-engineer your GM crops. The patented genes in those crops will soon enough look just a silly as the DMCA copyright stuff that we whine about so much.

Indeed, someone should get on producing a Slashdot icon for GM-hacking. Just to stay ahead of the curve

The non-seed producing crops are a short-term market owner. At the moment, you buy cheap gengeneered corn because you have to buy it every year. But in the short-term future (probably w/i the next few years, even) home-built hacks are going to appear. Selling genes is like selling code; it's basically just information.

This will be a huge party for the clever types who are willing to break laws to work around biotech-giant companies. If you think this is unlikely, look at this article from Utne Reader. Home biolabs are just around the corner. If someone wanted to tinker with a GM corn variety, all they would need to do is get one kernel of that corn, and they could pretty easily convince a crop to produce viable seeds.

The Utne article points out that animal biotech is virtually impossible at home, but that plant biotech is comparatively simple. Soon enough, we'll be seeing a host of patent violation lawsuits attacking websites that give step-by-step instructions on how to re-engineer your GM crops. The patented genes in those crops will soon enough look just a silly as the DMCA copyright stuff that we whine about so much.

Indeed, someone should get on producing a Slashdot icon for GM-hacking. Just to stay ahead of the curve

Situationist
Adbusters
CorpWatch
AllYourBrand

etc.:
Independent Media Center
Metropolitic.net
You May Be An Anarchist And Not Even Know It (I too thought the "anarchy movement" was a load of crap from bored aggressive adolescents (they really spoil it for everybody don't they?) until reading this and realizing there really is a legitimate coherent philosophy behind it)
Mother Jones
In These Times
Poliglut
Protest.net (yes, sometimes there are actually legitimate reasons to protest)
PigDog journal
Unabomer Manifesto (he may have been labeled a wacko, but read it - he's not stupid and he does sorta have a point.)

The folks that raised that question were actually asking about newspapers in particular, but it applies to a few other forms as well.

I'll preface this by saying that I've worked in reference at a library, that I've written for a newspaper, that a 'zine I edit on-line turns 10 this year, and that I have every single back-issue available.

The category of information I have the most trouble finding on the 'net, period - not a week goes by that I fail to find something in this category - is "old media stuff." Old here basically means anything prior to 1990.

There are some newspapers that have been on-line for a few years, and have done a good job of archiving their material in that time. There may even be a few (nytimes.com perhaps?) that have managed to put older material up in electronic form. But it's probably pay content, and it's definitely not something I can find in a search engine.

Magazines are no better, and probably worse. Newspapers at least make some effort to put all their content on-line; magazines are obsessed with the idea of teasing you into buying hardcopy. Even OLD articles, no go. A friend referenced an article in a year-old Utne Reader, and I'll have to go to the library for that one. I wonder if they're selling enough back-issues to make that sort of ploy viable. I doubt it.

And those are the exceptions. Most media sites on the Internet aren't designed with serious long-term archive availability in mind. That's just not the way they're thinking. Archives are for dead-tree formats, microfilm or microfiche or maybe CD-ROM if you're lucky. Not on-line.

Needless to say, my answer to the folks who were concerned about the 'net killing newspapers had a lot to do with it not happening until the 'net folks start taking archival more seriously. On the flip side, the 'net will have a whole lot of informational holes in it until that happens.

-Dan
--

This isn't anything new (look up anarcho-sydicalism), there are cooperatives now and ususally they outperform corporations, and their employees are a hell of a lot happier.

As a 'right-sized' business, as discussed in the latest issue of the Utne Reader, maybe a cooperative will work. But I don't think it would ever be considered an unqualified success. The 'democracy' of the marketplace is supposed to come in through the stock market. Which, we all know has nothing to do with democracy but the aforementioned plutocracy.

The American bashing, I believe, is unwarranted. Americans are idealistic about their(our) government because it does work and has brought us from a piss-poor ragatag collection of seperate interests to _the_ dominant world power. Now, all this may crumble (history tells us all empires fall) but what has brought us to this point is our idealism that we have a superior form of government, and political philosophers tend to agree that liberal democracies are the best way to run governments as it does strip out the tyranny of the few and the tyranny of the masses.

Most of the suggestions mentioned in Jon's article have been tried. Mostly the results have been, at best, mixed.

The worst kind of flamewar is the flamewar about who should be censored, ejected, etc. If you want to see exactly how bad that can be, check out the conferences (especially the meta conference) at utne.

If most hostile posts come from kids and their freedom to behave irresponsibly or cruelly online is guaranteed - (and it should be) it's the responsibility of the single biggest group of online users - the lurkers - to speak up.

This is the absolute worst thing you can do. When kids come trolling, yelling at them just encourages the behavior.

In any case, I really, honestly don't see what the problem is. I read at 1 and rarely see anything truly offensive. I hear people complain about offensive stuff, natalie portman posts and the like, but I rarely see them. (I've only seen the one petrified post that got +3 funny.)

More moderation scares me as there is already a problem of moderators voting their politics.
I suspect that part of the solution is not more moderation, but readers learning not to take offense at things that posted and then moderated down.

Talk to Tom with restaurant critic Tom Fitzmorris in New Orleans. Food is a big deal in New Orleans. InsideNewOrleans.com has assembled a very active, very local, very focused community around eating.

Backfence with James Lileks, a newspaper columnist with the Star Tribune in Minneapolis. His column is spun out of contributions from his message boards. He's built his own tight community within the newspaper's "Talk" service, which has something on the order of 30,000 registered users.

Cyberspace Cafe & Pub, a meandering discussion that began in 1994 or so on the proprietary Interchange network and migrated to the Web in 1995. Don't be fooled by the message count (around 5800); this has "rolled over" half a dozen times.

Cafe Utne, operated by the Utne Reader, sort of a Reader's Digest of "alternative" publications. If you're wondering where all the '60s liberals went, this is it.

Table Talk,, the message boards of the Web-based Salon magazine.