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"There is no matrix, there is only what is real." -- Laurence Fishburne in response to Matrix-inspired hysteria.

It is only apropos that it is the actor who plays Morpheus who has to set us straight on what is and what is not real.
Martin Rees is perhaps an expert on astrophysics, but Fishburne is an expert on appearance and illusion.

And a bunch of monkeys with typewriters made this website to boot! You just can't ask them to write Shakespeare.

See today's Washington Post article: U.S. gun laws can easily be exploited by international terrorist operatives, who can obtain assault-style firearms or explosives by taking advantage of delays and loopholes in the federal gun control system, according to a Congressional Research Service report to be released today. And keep in mind that the CRS answers to a Republican Congress!

As a sort of funny illustration, look at the picture on this page, which shows the crackers' old dean, Lev Kazarinov, in his office. He has a Microsoft baner on the wall, and his monitor shows the blue disk checker screen you get when your Windows system crashes.

Okay here's a link about the disenfranchisement of black voters. These people were scrubbed from the electoral rolls before they even had the chance to use one of those stupid machines. The scrubbing was basically that badly screwed up that thousands of legitimate voters were denied their rights. That alone should have been enough reason for a re-vote.

On your point about the head of the Electoral Office, the position should not be appointed by the governor or any member of the ruling party. The whole idea that the head of the supposedly independant arbiter of democracy should be beholden to one political party or another goes against the whole idea of a fair democracy. It's like the winning team picking whoever the hell they like as referree at the next game.

See this is the problem with American Democracy, it's not. While it may have started out with high ideals the American political system has degenerated into an almost dictatorial system with corperate bribery becoming the norm and narcissim and cronyism replacing any semblance of the sort of meritocracy that should be in place.

Here in Australia we have the concept that the public service must be able to fearlessly tell the government when it is doing the wrong thing, for the life of me I cannot see that happening in the states. Mind you I can see that concept rapidly disappearing here as well as our conservative government keeps riding the coat tails of the republicans in the US and introducing such ideas as Judges and Magistrates on limited term contracts.

Depressing but true, Wash Post also reporting people think they are actually in the Matrix and attempting to escape by killing others. read it here

Interestingly, here is another story by the Chicago Sun-Times, in which the reporter admits doing exactly what you state, firing reporters quietly and covering everything up.

Kudos for simultaneously karma-whoring and slipping the words "nigger" and "porch monkey" into your post. I rarely see anyone pull that off.

You're certainly a character- a racist with a degree in astrophysics- in fact you seem like you'd be an interesting person to know in real life.

I know you're only karma whoring

welcome to the grassroots fight of your life, if you're a media democracy activist. we've been working on this for a year, trying to build a coalition of peace and justice groups against the issue. during the war in iraq, many national peace activists would turn on the nightly news and say, 'what the hell? where are the bodies? why are retired generals and embedded reporters giving me my news?'

so they embraced the issue. it's a lot harder to ignore the group of people on the steps of the fcc whining 'FREE AND INDEPENDENT MEDIA' if those people are anti-war citizens from all across the country with money, clout, and celebrity spokesmen (michael moore).

the smallish team media democracy activists has ballooned into a huge group of peace and justice activists, hackers, consumer rights activists, kids, parents, people of all stripes. now groups like moveon.org are planning national call-in days. now code pink is pink-slipping fcc chairman michael powell alongside his much-more-famous father, colin powell.

so we have the people. what do we do? what's our power?

1) call your senator. like, now. right now. the senate, after the second commerce committee hearing on this issue, is rattling some sabers and could definitely use some encouragement that this issue isn't just one for the lobbyists.

2) comment to the fcc. you can do so here and the comments you make will also go to the senate commerce committee, and to the president.

3) tell someone who isn't tech savvy about this. you're reading slashdot. you have a choice about where you get your media. most people don't. newspaper, radio, and television matter more than we can say in most parts of this country. just ask the good people of minot.

and visit us at prometheus. we're here all the time. and we will be until june 2nd and after.

hannah sassaman
prometheusradioproject

Every issue we discuss, every decision we make, comes down to a simple test: Will it increase ratings or revenue? If it doesn't, let's move on."

This is what I wrote:

This is in regards to the so-called anti-SPAM bill being written by Billy Tauzin, here.

I believe that this is a terrible bill that will only lead to increase in the amount of unsolicited commercial email received by internet users. The bill will legitimaze the mass sending of unsolicted commercial email, and puts the burden on the consumer to "opt-out" of receiving these unwanted messages from hundreds or thousands of different organizations. For example, I could be required to opt-out of receiving these emails from dozens of subsidiaries. Further, this weak federal legislation will pre-empt state laws, and prevent consumers from seeking compensation against unsavory spammers.

I believe that strong anti-spam legislation should be enacted, but the bill being written by Rep. Tauzin will only make the problem of unsolicited commercial email worse.

Robot dogs playing Soccer.

But this is artificial life on the frontier, and "people just don't really appreciate how hard this is," says Jim Bruce, a third-year graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University here and a four-year RoboCup veteran with world titles in his trophy case. "People always ask why the dogs are so slow, but it took years to get them to walk as fast as they do."

Money_Taken_In - Money_Spent = Budget_Surplus_Or_Deficit

Negative values of Budget_Surplus_Or_Deficit are deficits.

Why don't they try SPENDING LESS rather than TAKING IN MORE?

Oh, I forgot, the California is on the LEFT coast.

Exactly--mod parent up!

If only those idjit libbruls understood that it's simply not enough to merely spend more--you need to take in less at the same time!

Massive tax cuts are the only way to combat massive deficits!

Trickle-down econom--err, the "wealth effect" is the only thing that can save us now!

Down the rabbit hole!

Are you all so blind that you can't see what your government is doing? You're about to default on the national debt in mid-May, and your president's only response is to cut income tax!

And yet you sit here and discuss Apple II computers. For God's sake, GET SOME PRIORITIES!!!

ACLU on Immigrant detentions

Mass detentions in LA

'Handful' detained in Houston

CIvil liberties groups file suit on behalf of INS detainees

US detains nearly 1200 during registry

Forgotten detainees

After Oaklahoma City, the US passed laws allowing the use of "Secret Evidence" to detain or deport. It's been used almost exclusively on Arabs and Muslims.

ACLU on Immigrant detentions

Mass detentions in LA

'Handful' detained in Houston

CIvil liberties groups file suit on behalf of INS detainees

US detains nearly 1200 during registry

Forgotten detainees

After Oaklahoma City, the US passed laws allowing the use of "Secret Evidence" to detain or deport. It's been used almost exclusively on Arabs and Muslims.

Seemed to do well this time around (ask the Kuwaitis and the American soldiers on the ground).

Just not for the British or the Americans in the air I guess

So plan on having a tough time finding a job, and don't blame the trouble on the diploma.

Times are Tough All Over.

India has a favorable exchange rate with the US

India is pushing programming for its people to dig out of the unfavorable economic conditions in its country, and bring in hard currency from other nations, specifically the US and Europe

the exchange rate in India, and the increased purchasing power of US corporations because of it, is enabling US corporations to lay off US programmers, and send their programming jobs to India

the number of US programmers laid off or currently being laid off is near an all time high, requests for hb1 visas are still high instead of dropping during a slow growth economy, and programming jobs shifting to India are increasing, not decreasing, during a slow growth economy

US corporations are either saving big money by hiring the same number of Indian programmers at a reduced wage/exchange rate, or they are hiring more Indian programmers for the same money they would have spent in the US

The savings are so great that it pays to establish offices, schools, and ship management personnel overseas temporarily to get the projects off the ground

The disparity is so great that the borg have shifted their assimilation from the US to India because of it

Take your head out of your sharpton and face reality.

Time to start the syrian part of operation pre-emption so that dwillyson can go back to picketing.

The majority of the people in the United States support the current government. Look at the poll numbers (67 percent as of last week). Hell, even 71% of Americans were supporting the way in Iraq. To believe that the majority of Americans do not support the current administration is foolhardy.

That doesn't, of course, mean that they're right about everything. They certainly aren't, but they're also not in the minority. Pretending that they've stolen the popular will, or unfairly snatched an election (the election was too close to call and within the margin of error, neither side would have been able to claim a clear victory, no matter what any court, or any liberal, might want to say) just isn't fair. If you've got a problem with policies, argue the policies. Calling the President names and implying that he's illegitimate isn't practical.

I don't see any more problems in America then I do in the rest of the free world. I've seen enough "human rights" cases going before the EU Court to make me want to retch. I've seen Australians constantly having ridiculous laws passed by their parliament. And hell, don't get me started about the messes in Asia, Africa and South America. I don't think that my country is perfect, but it's damned better off than most countries and will continue to be so as long as we're able to maintain our national charachter.

The MPAA is a red herring. Don't worry about silly DMCA laws quite so much. They're bad, but they're not the end of the world.

The Washington Post takes a slightly more sensationalist take on the "bare knuckle," "historic" forum.

Check the Washington Post Tech News article

(If you think that doesn't happen, look at the past.)

Or here, or here, or here, or even here!

Are you all so blind that you can't see what your government is doing? You're about to default on the national debt in mid-May, and your president's only response is to cut income tax!

And yet you sit here and discuss Apple Music. For God's sake, GET SOME PRIORITIES!!!

Are you so blind that you can't see what your government is doing? You're about to default on the national debt in mid-May, and your president's only response is to cut income tax!

And yet you sit here and write a first post on Slashdot. For God's sake, GET SOME PRIORITIES!!!

Are you all so blind that you can't see what your government is doing? You're about to default on the national debt in mid-May, and your president's only response is to cut income tax!

And yet you sit here and discuss fucking plain-text ads. For God's sake, GET SOME PRIORITIES!!!

Are you all so blind that you can't see what your government is doing? You're about to default on the national debt in mid-May, and your president's only response is to cut income tax!

And yet you sit here and discuss meaningless tech issues. GET SOME PRIORITIES!

Are you all so blind that you can't see what your government is doing? You're about to default on the national debt in mid-May, and your president's only response is to cut income tax!

And yet you sit here and discuss meaningless tech issues. GET SOME PRIORITIES!

Yep, it tells us a lot about the market. See Gene Weingarten's method of market analysis. Good as any, I guess...

The Washington Post is carrying their own version of this story. I think it's actually a better take on the subject - more complete and evenly written; it omits the ridiculous, apocryphal, quasi-religious quotes re: the epic crisis of faith in email.

World Health Organization issued a travel advisory
(another article
on Yahoo.)

To be honest with you, I have not taken the TTC (subways or buses) for a long time now so I do not know if there are many people wearing masks there, but on the streets I have only seen two people in the last month actually wearing surgical masks. On the radio (CFRB 1010) there was a discussion of a baseball game from where shots were broadcasted widely displaying a person wearing a mask, with headlines like "In Toronto, Fear Strikes Out ". The host from the radio was on that game and he only saw one (1) person wearing a mask out of thousands of people there. The camera-man concentrated his attention on that person.

Have you seen the shots from Baghdad, where supposedly thousands of Iraqi people were cheering while the US Marines took down Saddams statue? Later in the news they actually showed wide shots of that scene, and it became clear there were only a handfull of people in the area.

This is the same tactics used by the news crews for the single purpose of maintaining attention of millions of people on something that is not that newsworthy but something that can be blown out of the proportions and something that will boost news channels' ratings.

I live in Toronto and I swear to you there is no uncontrolably spread disease here, the offices are not closing, the restaurants and hotels are not closing business is as usual, people are not staying home out of fear but there are a few thousand people on quarantine, most of which will never show any symptoms.

Since last week there was no new cases of SARS in Toronto and the only deaths that occured (19 I think) can be attributed to SARS striking on the older people with some other health problems.

The only thing that WHO achieved was creating massive desinformation and boosting cnn and bbc audiences for the past month and costing Toronto travel industry hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. Really, last year, about 2000 people died in Toronto from flue, but we did not hear about this on cnn.

There are over 5000000 people in Toronto area and there are about 200 people that have SARS, that is 1/50000 of 1 percent. 19 of the sick people died. So far this means about 10% mortality rate for a disease that is statistically so rare, that anyone will have better chances of been killed by a lightning bolt than getting it. Hell, there are more chances of been violently murdered somewhere in Texas than getting SARS in Toronto. Maybe WHO should post a travel advisory about that.

Bush, the closest thing to fascist we've ever had.

Just remember what it was like 3 years ago: Economy was good, we had jobs, the President was brokering peace between Israel and Palestine, and our biggest worry was that the President had consentual sex with his adult intern. Oh my.

Today: Economy is crashing, > 6% unemployment
rate is common in urban areas across the country, we're in a questionable and bloody war for oil, the same people who bolstered Saddam into power are in control today, Israel and Palestine aren't even on the map, the Bush administration is silencing political critics, and the government wants to investigate your private life to make sure you are not a terrorist, headed by Big Brother himself.

So much has been lost in just 3 years.

China's Chernobyl
Tuesday, April 22, 2003; Page A18

SEVENTEEN YEARS AGO this month, Swedish scientists first noticed disturbingly high levels of radiation on their monitoring screens -- the first signs of the Chernobyl disaster. But although Western scientists quickly pinpointed the source of the radiation in the Soviet Union, the Soviet leadership was slow to respond. For 18 days Mikhail Gorbachev, who had just taken power, said nothing. When he finally spoke, he accused Western media of sensationalism but also seemed genuinely affected by the suffering and illness. Within months, Chernobyl had helped persuade him to launch glasnost, a policy of greater honesty in Soviet public debate.

Watching China react to SARS, the mysterious new respiratory disease, it is impossible not to be reminded of Chernobyl. . .

It is far too early to say whether the SARS fiasco will lead to a new era of glasnost in China. . .

In other words, there are more cracks in China's totalitarian armor than the Chinese and even some Americans are prepared to admit. The damage caused by secrecy in the SARS case shows why it is right to continue pressing China in every way possible to become more open.

"The proposed addendum to the Patriot Act, which the Justice Department has insisted is only a draft of ideas, would enlarge many of the controversial provisions in the first Patriot Act. It would give the government authority to wiretap an individual and collect a person's DNA without court orders, detain people in secret and revoke citizenship, among other powers."

Nations outside of the West have no qualms whatsoever in using nuclear force against us. For example, in 1995, the Chinese threatened to drop a nuclear bomb on Los Angeles. Please read "Chinese general told threat against U.S. unacceptable". The Chinese have proactively obtained sensitive information about our military technology and national security. They intend to undermine our society. Please read " Military secrets on sale to China" and "Spy Suspect Led an Active, Prominent Life".

Remember these famous words: "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." Let us not forget our obligations to our fellow citizens in the West even if we are "geeks".

Its not the Washington Times its the Washington Post.

Helen of Troy didn't have the 'Ass that Launched a Thousand Ships'.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A536 40-2003Apr18.html

TV Previews: 'Helen of Troy': A Long, Silly Iliad

By Tom Shales

Washington Post Staff Writer

Saturday, April 19, 2003; Page C01

Perhaps the most striking thing about "Helen of Troy," the new USA Network miniseries based on
very old tales from Greek mythology, is -- to put it bluntly -- Helen's fanny. It makes a
conspicuous appearance in Part 1 (tomorrow night at 8) and returns for an encore in Part 2
(Monday night, same time, same network).

The semi-nudity is actually icing on the ratings cake; the film may do well on the basis of
its sex and violence alone.

Your article, "Spy Suspect Led an Active, Prominent Life", was rather interesting. This Chinese was very persistent and spent nearly 20 years in helping Beijing to spy in the USA. With such persistence, it is imperative that organizations like the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) pull funding from groups employing foreigners of suspect loyalty.

I see nothing wrong with this policy. Groups who are dangerous to this country should not be allowed on sensitive projects (e. g. those funded by DARPA). This is not a game. The Chinese are a threat to our nation's security. Please read "Spy Suspect Led an Active, Prominent Life".

When a project has such importance that a defense agency (in this case, DARPA) of the United States of America (USA) is willing to fund the project, the American government has a right to place restrictions on who can work on the project. This is old news. Many projects at Lincoln Labs at MIT face similar restrictions. When the university -- or the professor -- disagrees, DARPA is well within its right to pull funding.

This is no laughing matter. It is good for the USA to be a free and open society that welcomes foreigners. We should continue to maintain this policy for foreigners who support the USA and its Western ethics, which are the foundation of the most successful society (i. e. Western society) in the world.

However, there are foreigners who wish to oppose the USA and its Western ethics. Worse, there are foreigners who attempt to destroy the USA and its Western ethics after they become American citizens. Please read "Spy Suspect Led an Active, Prominent Life".

It is no secret that the bulk of the researchers at the University of Pennsylvania are foreigners, and most of the foreigners are Chinese. They are a threat to the USA, and DARPA justifiably pulled its funding.

By the way, I am not "White", and I fully support Western ethics and the USA.

You are entirely correct sir.

He does sound like a real stooge for the anti-privacy, pro-fascist crowd. The dangerous thing about him is that he doesn't seem dumb - he sounds like he has a decent grasp on the current state of technology and he is really good with the word-twisting, see his support for the PATRIOT act and his statement that helping instead of exploiting 3rd world countries won't do a thing to counter terrorism. That we are much better off giving up our liberties instead.

Actually, Rupert Murdoch's networks in the US, Austrailia, and everywhere they operate are pushing right wing politics. Most people support this war because TV told them to. The media can make most people believe anything. They say they are just giving the public what they want, but do so only after telling the public what to want. I wonder, though if Fox will keep Bill O'Reilly, now that he has pulled a Trent Lott.

Apparently, yet another Chinese with American citizenship has sold out the United States of America (USA) to China, the country which she really loves. The Chinese plotted and connived her way into the upper echelons of the Republican party and its operatives in the FBI. She succeeded in copying key documents about American national security and passed those documents to Beijing.

To understand why an American of Chinese ancestry would betray the USA, please read "Why Chinese are Different from Westerners

The Washington Post Story Your karma whoring friend... --T

Concern for the fate of the Internet in Iraqi presumes that the place won't end up as another Muslim theocracy. It will, and you'll see about as much interest in things 20th century (other than weapons) from Iraq as you do from Iran.

Let the UN try to build out Iraqi Internet. Frankly I have no hope for the place and I'd rather we just get out. That's what the Muslim world wants anyhow. They're already blowing themselves up in Baghdad and slicing apart their returning exiles, in a mosque, in a holy city. Who needs this?

Lets get our POWs and leave. Screw finding WMD. The UN is a joke and trying to satisfy them with "proof" of WMD is pointless. Anything found will be discounted as American plants.

Time to go.

The enemy was wiped out. It retreated. When we pounded it, it went away farther. When we stop firing, they return and advance, maneuvering and establishing presence in places here and there. This aggression will end in failure. After its destruction, Iraq will remain and it will be led by President Saddam Hussein."

But what we are really talking about here is all the protestors of the last year that think we shouldn't be attacking Iraq. And they think that just because they are protesting in the streets, and the policy hasn't changed, they are being dealt some great injustice.

So... they start breaking the law, laying in the busy downtown streets of New York with the intention of causing economic hardship to New York. These people are the minority, were allowed to vote in the National elections, and are being dealt no injustice at all. We have an all voluntary military force, where objectors to the war can be relieved of duty after filling out a simple form. And just because 25 people protest somewhere against the war doesn't mean they are representing some underlying unrepresented majority.

The facts remain:
As far as rallys and protests go, those against the war are far less attended than those who support the war.
Poll after poll after poll has shown an overwhelming support for the President and the war.
The war protestors are in a clear minority, are being dealt no injustice, and want to circumvent the political process with violence and economic disruption. This should be very illegal. All of these protests you mentioned were heald because there was no other way of correcting an injustice. The law-breaking done by anti-war protestors is the result of a minority wanting to write foreign policy, undermine the current elected government, and force the will of the minority on the rest of the people. That's the difference.

Oregon is considering a law that would label protestors who disrupt traffic as terrorists. They would face 25 to life. So much for freedom of assembly. According to the article even the police union is opposed to this one.

read more

Inflexibility can be either really good or really bad.

To consider the good: Yeshua of Natzeret (see sig), Aurelius Augustinus (St. Augustine), William Wilberforce (ended slavery in the British empire), Isaac Newton, George Washington, Winston Churchill, Oscar Schindler, Mahatma Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and many more. Of recent years, I'd add to the list of inflexible people of the best kind: George W. Bush, Tony Blair, the late Todd Beamer, Jessica Lynch, and one Mohammed of Iraq.

We never annihilate cultures that we just can't deal with (Native Americans, yeah they're much more powerful rich and happy).

We never FORCE people who don't want to be in this country to remain in this country (Civil War anyone? Oh yeah, it was all about slavery. Ask Martin Luther King Jr if slavery ended in 1863).

We never imprison people without a trial just because we're afraid they might disagree with our government (Japanese imprisonment in WWII).

We never persecute communists, or people who associate with communists. (McCarthyism?)

We never consider terrorizing our own citizens to justify conquering another country ( Operation Northwoods?)

We never do anything like
brainwash children to fight our enemies and believe that women are second-class citizens (What kind of freedom is this?)

We never allow the Taliban to take over Afghanistan in the first place (Read what Rohrabacher has to say).

We never sacrifice our WONDERFUL FREEDOM at a whim (Patriot Act).

We never imprison people without a trial just because we're afraid they might disagree with our government (Maher Hawash)

I don't know if it makes us imperialist, but it makes me less happy.