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Occupation and annexation of Crimea already a staggering success, Russia must be looking into organizing a referendum in Alaska.

Peace-loving Americans will not be objecting — a referendum conducted under occupation going in favor of the occupying power? What "conflict of interest"?

The knuckle-dragging haters will be neutralized by polite men with Russian accents wearing indiscernible uniforms...

That's obviously because we can trust the police and other authorities more than the general public. Authorities would never abuse massive surveillance databases.

The Israelis seem to have a pretty good method

I think we've got a long way to go to catch up to India or China.

500 mil was just declared "unaccounted for"

what a moron

:-) Somebody doesn't believe me. This is how it's done, kid. Stuff just 'vanishes' into thin air.

Most Summer days, my parents (or grandparents) rarely knew where I was from mid-morning until dinner. And, that was in Detroit! Maybe they were just hoping I wouldn't come back!?!

As for free range parenting being "almost considered a crime"... http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

The graphic illustrates the point that is very obvious to anybody who pays attention. If ISIS is really the enemy, then the weapons are going to Iran, which just happens to be the only country actually fighting them. Either way, we have another "Iran/Contra" thing going on here. The "cold war" lives on, and nobody dares to raise any questions. If anybody is making up stories, it's the government, and there's certainly nothing new there.

Whoops! Four of our helicopters are missing! Who do you think could possibly have them? A common Hollywood byline in a few of their spy flicks was *knowing who to trust*. ...we have people everywhere. Am I right?

In case you wonder how ISIS is receiving US support.. How long must the charade go on, sir? They are keeping the Russians out. That is what is important, no?

Remember incidents like this when you see lists of countries supposedly being ahead of other countries in terms of test score results...

China is number one on most tests, and they openly and systematically cheat by excluding the bottom 80% from even taking the exam. Chinese people are assigned to a hereditary social class at birth, under the Hukou System. About 20%, mostly richer people, are privileged "urban" class, which entitles them free education, healthcare, subsidized housing, etc. The bottom 80% are assigned to the "rural" class (even if they live in a city), and aren't even entitled to food during times of shortage (99% of the 30 million deaths by starvation during the Great Leap Forward were people with a rural hukou). Since Chinese students only take the PISA exam in urban areas, where it is illegal for the poor kids to attend public schools, the results are meaningless. It would be like America only testing students from households with incomes in the top quintile. This is all well known, and there has been a lot of complaints about the way China cheats on these tests.

The houkou system is a profound injustice, requiring the poor to pay taxes to support a system that only benefits the rich. Most Americans know nothing about it, because Chinese immigrants to America come almost exclusively from the privileged class, and have no interest in criticizing a system that benefits their families.

> If that strike is destroying monuments thousands of years old and causing irreparable damage to a very fragile desert ecosystem - yes,

So, the fact that the Nature Conservancy sold the drilling rights on their "conservation land" to big oil would be a problem for you, right? And if they promised to stop doing that but were still doing it 10 years later, you would be strongly against that right?

And when it came to light that the Nature Conservancy took millions of dollars from BP, but kept mum about it during the disaster in the Gulf, you would be strongly against them for not considering that to be a problem, right?

Or is your support of the NC more about opposing Greenpeace than it is about any sort of meaningful and consistent principles?

oh my godsies, parents have to take care of their kids. Wow, that's terrible. Next thing you know they'll have to find them too... tough shit, have a kid, you better be there to take care of them and raise them.

"Being there" and "taking care" of a kid also involves gradually giving them the freedom to make their own choices and do their own things as they grow. If you don't do this, you end up with kids who never learn to take care of themselves and are still living at home in their late 20s or 30s.

Anyhow, this needs to be based on age and maturity level, obviously. But nowadays we can't trust a 10-year-old to play outside with a 6.5-year-old younger sibling or to walk home from a park together (and yes, the parents ultimately were found responsible for neglect), nor can we trust an 11-year-old alone in a car for a few minutes while Mommy goes into the store.

Etc., etc. Sadly, these stories are not uncommon. There are things like this that come up on a regular basis across the U.S., and if you search a bit you can also read some of the harrowing stories of parents who are force to spend months or years struggling to get their kids back or living under draconian state "supervision" by CPS when they do.

Yes, as parents, you need to supervise your kids when they are little, and then you gradually allow them more freedom. It's called "growing up." But nowadays, people call the cops if they see a kid younger than 16 without a parent around, and CPS comes knocking.

You don't think that's extreme?

After passing a voted ID law, "among 18 year olds, turnout dropped by 7.1 percentage points more in Kansas than it did among those aged 44 to 53 year-olds."

Seven Year Old San Francisco Girl Struck and Killed By Uber Driver; Uber Denies Responsibility http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/...

Boston Uber Driver Charged with indecent Assault and Battery http://www.bostonglobe.com/met...

Off-Duty LA Uber Driver Accused of Sexual Assault http://www.bizjournals.com/los...

Chicago Uber Driver With Felony Conviction Charged With Battery For Allegedly Hitting Passenger http://www.forbes.com/sites/el...

Writer and Activist Reports Being Choked in DC; Uber Denies The Event and Responsibility http://valleywag.gawker.com/ub...

DC Uber Driver Allegedly Assaults Customer for Burping http://www.washingtoncitypaper...

San Francisco Uber Customer Claims Abuse and Assault by Uber Driver (Pando) http://pando.com/2013/11/25/ub...

Passenger Struck In Head With Hammer by UberX Driver http://www.forbes.com/sites/el...

Uber Driver Pulls Gun on Valet in Atlanta http://pando.com/2014/09/08/at...

Uber Driver Punches Passenger in Oklahoma http://newsok.com/oklahoma-cit...

Lyft Driver Attacks Pedestrian in San Francisco http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news...

Lyft Driver Brandishes Knife in Los Angeles http://www.laweekly.com/2013-0...

Uber Customer Sues for $2M over Alleged Driver Stabbing in DC http://dcinno.streetwise.co/20...

DC Uber Driver Allegedly Rapes Customer http://betabeat.com/2013/03/ub...

Uber Driver Charged with Fondling Passenger in Chicago http://valleywag.gawker.com/ub...

DC Uber Driver Arrested for Alleged Rape But Not Charged Despite Strong Evidence http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

Another DC Uber Driver Accused of Molesting Uber Rider http://valleywag.gawker.com/an...

Passenger Struck In Head With Hammer by UberX Driver http://www.forbes.com/sites/el...

Uber Driver in India Accused of Rape http://www.bbc.c

Margins these days on many elections are within a percent or two, so non-citizen voting is enough to have a real impact on how elections swing.

ten years?!

The math is based on the WaPo observation that, two years prior to the next election (and therefore a net of 10 years by the end of her second term) "The circus is (already) back in town."

Hmmm... you have to be careful with Russian media:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

http://www.gallup.com/poll/167...

His poll numbers were in decline and most analysts believe his actions are a crass political ploy to boost his poll numbers in Russia:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/...

I can cite articles and conclusions from think tanks all over the world if you like. I read something from a Japanese source the other day that said the same thing.

This is how the governments of the world see this action.

And that US counter response is going to focus on Putin's support base.

actively collecting cats and making sure all cats get fixed would have a greater reduction of bird deaths by orders of magnitude.
cats kill BILLIONS of birds a year in the united states alone.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

So perhaps each power plant could fund an animal patrol officers in large cities they serve.

Yes, because underdeveoped elephant sized chickens become dinosaurs!!!

I'd say leaving office apparently broke and then making shitloads-times-fuckloads of money later, is a sign of a successful president.

Well, then President Clinton neatly skirts any accusation of being successful by that metric: http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

They left office not just with millions, but also with the White House dinnerware: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics...

Every time the price of the raw product goes up, it goes up at the pump with the oil companies claiming that the price is dependent on the price of the raw product.

It is dependent on the price of the raw product, but over time. Producers take into account reserves, current, and future availability and prices.

The suggestion that gas prices are the result of collusion and oligopolies has been disproven time and again. E.g., http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

Here in Canada its the government that is highly controlled by the oil companies, at least with the current government.

The government is "controlled" by every special interest with deep pockets and a big lobby. The solution to that is more free market capitalism and less government power.

I thought they already had this sort of capability.

You're telling me that there is no red button on the Enterprise bridge? I don't believe it for a second.

Fire Photon torpedoes!

Unlike in US, rape is a "hate crime" in India;
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

Front Line on For Profit Colleges

For profit college students have the highest student loan default rate.

National Accreditation is worse than regional.

criminal masterminds will always get guns. and use them wisely

casual hotheads simply won't get guns. because they aren't trying hard in life. they'll pick up baseball bats and knives for their idiotic reasons and instead. which is a wonderful impovement, because those are hugely less lethal than a gun

proof:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

casual hotheads are the assholes that are causing all the senseless death. and for some moronic reason, some americans think it is important that guns be very easy to get for irresponsible hotheads. why?

now mod me down for stating the plain truth

look at all of our social and economic peers. they do not suffer from all the fearmongering bullshit you spout if guns are controlled as the founders intended, as stated in the second amendment

Inside the shadowy world of birth tourism at ‘maternity hotels’ - The Washington Post

"In luxury apartment complexes in Southern California and in grand, single-family homes in New York, “maternity hotels” are brimming with pregnant women and cooing newborn babies.

For wealthy foreign women, the facilities offer the promise of a comfortable, worry-free vacation complete with a major perk: a U.S. passport for their newborn."

Maybe they should have a friendly talk with the IRS...

>> there are tax issues but they are pretty minor
>
> You're kidding. Have you actually experienced them?

I'm sure the author of the article is intimately familiar with the tax issues, being an american ex-pat himself. So on that issue he can make an informed decision.

As for the benefits of being a US citizen? I dunno, but a lot of rich people think it is valuable enough that "birth tourism" is a thing.

I literally typed into google "EPA won't disclose data" and then saw a page full of different examples.

Here's one:
http://www.sej.org/publication...

not quite sure what that is about... something about a mine.

here's another
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

This one is actually sort of reasonable. They're saying they don't want to disclose projected casualties at disaster sites. I'm sure congress would give them a waiver for this sort of thing though. They frequently give waivers for national security stuff.

Here's another:
http://www.foreffectivegov.org...

That one is about pesticides and bees.

So yeah. Be less shitty at using search engines please... its the 21st century, you filthy animals.

Every time I get some sort of query like this on Slashdot... I am just baffled that no one knows how to use a search engine but me. I'm apparently the only one.

demographics my friend

old angry stupid white people die

who remains and what groups grow long term?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

recording authorities helps...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

Didn't catch that difference, much more significant if she was using email service going over the public internet... holy crap, just post them in the local bar restroom wall why don't you?

It was not Gmail, but from "hacked" emails (probably intercepted) it was a "private" email domain.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

Likewise, this is Federal Law.

According to the article in the Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill said in a statement Tuesday: “Like secretaries of state before her, she used her own email account when engaging with any Department officials.
...
“Both the letter and spirit of the rules permitted State Department officials to use non-government email, as long as appropriate records were preserved,” Merrill said.

So, unless there's some specific statement to the contrary, this says (1) this was also the practice of other secretaries of state, and (2) the rules permitted this.

So, I'd like to see the text of the "rule" saying she needed to use a .gov account before saying she broke the law. (People seem to be referring to the 2013 National Archives and Records Administration guidance as the "rules", but 2013 was after she left office.)

--
hmm, since any comment that even mildly defends a politician will draw heavy flames on /. I think I'll post as anonymous.

Well, if anybody else in government did this, they'd get fired, lose their pension, and possibly face criminal charges.

Still waiting on charges against Sarah Palin, for the same offense. I'm guessing it will be a cold day in hell before either sees any consequences beyond partisan propaganda. In fact, I'm pretty sure this is one of those rules, like declaring any gifts over $50, that gets employees a firm warning not to do it again.

More than a year's worth of efforts to reform the NSA stalled last year, as the Senate came two votes short of advancing the USA Freedom Act in November. The measure failed to overcome a filibuster by Republicans, many of whom warned any limitation imposed on the NSA could bolster terrorist groups like the Islamic State.

The Islamic State is not a threat is you or me. And never has been.

The peoples of the Middle East are more than capable of handling them (we sold them the weapons!) and in the Post's article

It has become the consensus view in Washington that the militants are poised to bulldoze through America’s Middle East allies, destabilize global oil supplies and attack the U.S. homeland.

is total bullshit. The IS WISHES they were that powerful.

All we the USA are doing is fucking things up more and are the recruiting arm for the IS.

Goddamn! Washington is stupid! And everyone who believes the ignorant TV and radio pundits who are making such a big deal out of this.

Could you please elaborate, as I'm trying hard to imagine how on earth can that look "blue and black" as actually HIDING the context I clearly see gold color.

PS
I'm talking about this image:
http://img.washingtonpost.com/...

I asked you to refrain from empty statements like "don't throw money at the problem" or "it would be better if people didn't have to rely on government assistance" and other such phrasings that you have used.

Those aren't empty statements, but I won't belabor that point anymore. We clearly disagree.

That you also combined programs like Social Security with your complaints about Welfare in general, is yet another hallmark of why I differ with you. You even thought it was necessary to combine them. It's not. Never was, never have been.

Once welfare reform hit, a lot of people shifted over to Social Security - specifically the long-term disability part. It is exactly this kind of shuffling that makes it difficult to separate the programs. Social Security is not one thing - it is a retirement program for all wage earners (except some public unions), but it also contains a significant social welfare element. I don't mind separating them for whatever analysis you want to do - either way the amount of money spent has only gone up and poverty has not budged since those initial gains way back in the 60s.

Here's a decent write-up. I wish we could paste graphs in, but I'll do my best. First, look at the very first chart, which shows a dramatic decrease in the poverty rate in the first 10 years, followed by no progress over the remaining 40. The second chart addresses the criticism that the official poverty rate is not accurate, but it also shows only a slightly more optimistic trend. The last chart shows spending as a percentage of GDP, broken down into all programs and programs exclusively for the benefit of the poor - as you keep suggesting.

You can see from this chart that the initial ramp-up from 0.5 to 1% of the GDP corresponds to a reduction in the poverty rate from 22% to 12%. This represents an astounding success: for 0.5% of our total output, we cut poverty almost in half!

However, the ensuing years see us increase spending 4x, with little to show for it. I know that my analysis is simplistic. I know that much of the spending has been on health care, which has grown at a rate far in excess of the GDP. Nevertheless, it is a completely reasonable interpretation of the data to say that money is probably not the problem anymore. It certainly looks like it was in 1950, but you have to recognize that we reached a point of diminishing returns sometime in the early 70s.

An interesting correlation is the 2nd chart from the bottom, where black and Hispanic poverty took a nose-dive in the mid 90s. We were coming out of a recession and entering the dot-com era, and that probably explains some of it. But I think it is notable that this is when welfare reform started to kick in. Sometimes you can help the poor by doing something counter-intuitive.

"Some Washington lobbyists are beginning to argue that the FCC mission doesn't just cover the Internet. Advocates for pay-TV providers are saying the FCC should use Section 706 to act more aggressively against the companies that produce TV content. Why? Because the pay-TV providers think the content producers are charging them too much for programming — and because programming costs eat into the budget for building, say, cable broadband, what hurts pay-TV providers could hurt the spread of broadband.

In short, if cable companies can convincingly argue that their costs of buying programming are effectively a barrier to broadband deployment, that's a case for federal intervention."

Nurse Quarantined By Christie Comes Back To Haunt Him On Vaccines

Parents Fighting Against Gov't. Vaccination Agenda - The John Birch Society

Scott Brown Rents Out Email List To Anti-Vaccine Conspiracy Theorist

And lets not forget the John Birch-er conspiracy theory that fluoridated drinking water is a government attempt at mind control (whether or not certain fluoride compounds cause problems, the conspiracy angle is irrational).

And lets not forget that, in general, denial of medical care on religious grounds is far and away dominated by right wing religious affiliation.

So, by eliding the nuclear and GMO issues with vaccines (or other medical care) you're trying to erect a rather disingenuous straw man. If anything seems to go hand-in-hand with anti-vaccination sentiment, its freemarket ideology among the "sovereign individuals" crowd. I think Rand Paul would agree.

Have a nice day.

They are a private company that has a published set of terms and conditions.

Can a baker, florist or photographer put forth a set of terms and conditions with regards to what kind of events they will provide services for?

The courts have been saying no for a while now in the case of some events they may disagree with: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

It is an interesting world where some people/companies are compelled to provide services equally (if they want to remain in business), while others are given a pass.

I'm still waiting for a case like this to happen in the US as it would be rather entertaining viewing: http://www.nationalreview.com/...

More of this to come and for a good reason.

As to revolutions and such nonsense - the stupid and jealous should learn to see beyond their nose, none of those revolutions made anything better for the people who were poor in those systems prior to any of it. The poor get poorer, the rich leave.

I have 0 interest in any of your jealousy, 0 interest in any theft and redistribution of stolen goods by the mob for the mob. Revolutions are a ruse, they were always set up by pseudo-intellectuals who wanted power and used the dumb masses to get that power and then they stomped all over those masses once they got to power.

AFAIC people will eventually learn that it is better to live in an actual capitalist free market society after going through so many ridiculous attempts at theft and redistribution.

But don't be mistaken by my civil response to your comment, I see you as vomit, nothing more.

"And where does nitrogen in food come from?"

It's in part a cycle -- land to humans to waste to land. Only in part as nitrogen can oxidize to go back to the air, so it needs to get fixed again by bacteria.

"Very little fertilizer is lost in modern agriculture in relative terms."

First, 40% of food in the USA is wasted. So, all that fertilizer is wasted. Food produced closer to home might not incur so much waste.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

But that is not what I meant. This is what I meant:
http://www.scientificamerican....
"Fertilizer Runoff Overwhelms Streams and Rivers--Creating Vast "Dead Zones"
The nation's waterways are brimming with excess nitrogen from fertilizer--and plans to boost biofuel production threaten to aggravate an already serious situation"

"Pathogens are not a problem, they are outcompeted by soil bacteria during composting."

Composting doesn't always get everything, as compost piles have edges and heat zones, and all that depends on careful management. Also, compost is contaminated by chemicals people dispose in the waste stream (chemicals from home darkrooms used to be a big issue) and also pharmaceuticals flushed down toilets.

"China's population grew 3 _times_ during the last century virtually without increasing the land use, because of the fertilizers and pesticides."

The fact that China's population may now need more inputs given growth in the last century since the Haber process does nothing to invalidate that they managed large (but not quite so large) populations for 3900 years before that without the Haber process. What that shows is that alternatives have worked. China is one of the most densely populated places on the planet. If they could do it, it shows the US could do it and other countries could do it.

"Still won't work. You'll need livestock for manure (to concentrate nitrogen and other nutrients). "

I agree that much current "organic agriculture" is dependent on livestock manure from conventional farming which is based mostly on feeding conventionally farmed grain (not pasture grass) to animals, and so there is a big nitrogen input there. That said, given a change in land uses patterns (especially away from agriculture), and with more nutrient recycling, and with intercropping and crop rotations and ground up rock dust, likely we could feed the planet well without the Haber process. I'll admit it would be good to back that with more numbers.

"And agricultural robots are a pipe dream."

Did you do the slightest research on them?
"Are agricultural robots ready? 27 companies profiled"
http://robohub.org/are-agricul...

"Unlike you, I actually helped to grow my own food (lean years after the USSR collapse) so I appreciate the amount labor required for that."

I'm sorry you had to go through that involuntarily due to crazy geopolitics and economics that cause that crisis. Still, you can't compare what you presumably had to do with limited tools and limited materials and limited information in a (probably) limited climate on impoverished soils with what is really possible with good tools, abundant materials, abundant information, in a good climate on well prepared soils.

Still, how do you know what foods I've grown or what I've studied?

"And I also worked with the Great Evil (Monsanto) on actual modern agriculture to appreciate the difference."

I see. I'll try not to assume that context might explain a lot. :-) Still, at the very least, it may be something like how someone who works with Microsoft products a lot might never think that open source software is possible or even better sometimes? Have you studied organic agriculture? Have you read Wid

Consider:

You own a business that the Government does not like.
The Government then starts a program, maybe one called Operation Choke Point that pressures banks to withhold services from YOU, thereby making it near impossible for you to do business.

That is pretty much the Government forcing you out of business, or censoring you, in effect, by using a third party.

And in case you wondering, it goes like this with the banks..."That's a nice bank you have there. It'd be a shame if we had to do a top to bottom audit. Who knows what we'd find, how much it would cost you, or how long it would take. But we could avoid that if you did us a favor..."

The Feds have been effectively censoring/destroying entire industries by getting banks to withhold services via Operation Choke Point.

Make you wonder what the Feds may have to hold over Google's head.

Though that estimate might be a little high...

"Just before leaving public office in 2001, Gore reported assets of less than $2 million; today, his wealth is estimated at $100 million."

Warning about global warming is a good business to be in it seems...

In 2001, the Koch brothers where worth $ 3.2 billion each. In 2010 $ 17.5 billion. Looks like paying others to deny Global Warming seems to be a better business....

As for Al Gore - he made far from being on the board of Apple than from Global Warming. http://wallstcheatsheet.com/stocks/heres-how-apple-and-the-internet-made-al-gore-rich.html/?a=viewall

Yes Robots ARE dangerous
  "The clothes make the man" - ancient fascist proverb

In the end, I think the real problem is that we have unions running our schools for the benefit of the union members, rather than for the children.

Well, Mr. Evidence Guy, does evidence change your opinion or not?

http://voices.washingtonpost.c...

You can tell someone is a blind Democrat if the only rich people they can name are the Kochs.

They're the only ones I know of that have pledged to spend almost a billion dollars to influence the next election.

Though that estimate might be a little high...

"Just before leaving public office in 2001, Gore reported assets of less than $2 million; today, his wealth is estimated at $100 million."

But then again, it could be right on the money:

"Mr. Gore is poised to become the world’s first “carbon billionaire,” profiteering from government policies he supports that would direct billions of dollars to the business ventures he has invested in."

Warning about global warming is a good business to be in it seems...

At least 11 papers he has published since 2008 omitted such a disclosure, and in at least eight of those cases, he appears to have violated ethical guidelines of the journals that published his work.

And his evidence? What about the evidence? What does him accepting money have to do with his results?

Did he fake his evidence, or fudge the calculations?

Science is all about the observations and the predictive conclusions. It shouldn't matter if he was funded by the devil himself - if science can't refute his observations and conclusions, then it's the science that must be revisited.

Let's focus on what's important, and leave the person out of the equation.

(Lots of doctors take money from drug companies - so much so that there's a government database that allows you to look up your doctor online.)

(And for the record, I'm not for or against the "school of thought" that is climate change. It's simply something I haven't looked into. I have seen some seemingly credible arguments against (due to selection bias in the news), but I leave it to the experts to decide.)

There is much to be done, but a great place to start would be moving to an independent system of true forensics science. In our current system, the forensics people work for the prosecution. They are not blinded as to what the police and prosecutor think about the crime or potential perpetrators. Much of what passes for "science" in the courtroom has absolutely no scientific basis, despite their "Frye Standard" of evaluating scientific evidence. There is very little research into the accuracy of forensics conclusions.

Radley Balko over at the Washington Post just published a 4 part series on the flawed science of bite mark analysis. Our system is so increadibly screwed up that even getting caught on video tape framing an innocent man using junk "science" that has been discredited by actual scientific research isn't enough to get the courts and prosecutors to consider the possibility that they might have an innocent man in jail. The series is well worth the read, and if you really want to get your blood pressure up, follow the links to individual cases down a rathole of righteous indignation.