I recently read When God Talks Back by T.M. Luhrmann, and she talks about this. She's a (non-religious) anthropologist who spend several years attending and participating in charismatic evangelical churches to try to understand what makes these sorts of religious people tick, and it's fascinating. While some of them are legitimately crazy, she concludes that most of them are not--they are ordinary thoughtful people who do question and examine their faith, and conclude that it holds up.
One of my favorite things about the library at the university where I did my undergrad was that the shelves where they sorted books that had been returned before placing them back where they went were out in the open. Any given day I could walk by and browse through a couple thousand books that had been returned that day or the day before--a snapshot of books on every topic that people thought were worth reading (or, at least, worth checking out).
I think there's a lot of value in "transparent" libraries.
Just moved to NC this year, and one of the things I love is how easy they make it to vote early, no excuse needed--including registering at the time you vote. It took me all of ten minutes to register and vote.
Also, we use a very clean optical-scan ballot, so less confusion, no touch-screen calibration issues, and a paper trail. I was really very pleased.
I strongly disagree. I've read many hundreds of books over the course of my life. I've never kept careful count, but looking at the Kindle I bought about 18 months ago, I have about 100 books I've read on there in that time. I've probably also read at least a dozen books in hard copy in the last 18 months--I do most but not all of my reading on my Kindle these days. Many books I've read and mostly forgotten and can't identify any specific impact they had on me, though I have no doubt that collectively they have changed me. But there are a few--maybe a dozen--that I would say have definitely had significant, identifiable, individual impacts on me (in addition to the general influences that I can't identify). There are a few of these books that I keep re-reading over and over again and just can't stop thinking about.
I honestly pity you if you've never had that experience--if you've never read a book that changed your life.
At least a portion of that purchase would be included (according to one source, Google has said that $5.5 billion of the purchase price was for the patents).
"In 2012, Google spent $12.5B to buy Motorola Mobility and its patents, and $5.2B in 2011 on R&D. In 2011, Apple spent $2.4B on R&D but contributed more, approximately $2.6B, to a single transaction to buy patents from Nortel."
There are citations on all four figures, including a note that Google says $5.5 billion of the price for Motorola Mobility was for their patents.
The author, Colleen Chien, is actually a law professor at Santa Clara, not at Stanford. According to her CV she did her undergrad at Stanford and had a fellowship at the Stanford law school for eight months in 2006, but she doesn't list any more recent affiliation with Stanford. There is a draft of her article under Stanford's domain: http://www.stanford.edu/dept/law/ipsc/Paper%20PDF/Chien,%20Colleen%20-%20Paper.pdf
Regardless of whether this is actually the NYT's source, and why--if it is--they affiliated it with Stanford, the numbers seem good (you can find the citations on the draft linked above).
[I tracked this down by googling "site:stanford.edu apple google research and development patent" which brought up the draft I linked as the third result. After verifying that it contained the relevant information it was easy to find the listing on SSRN and to track down Colleen Chien's page at Santa Clara. Now that you know my tricks, you, too, can become a master of google-fu, and not have to rely on me to find sources for you!]
Once again you display your ignorance of the situation. Sean Smith was hardly a "high ranking official in the US government." He was not an ambassador. He was an IT worker, one of thousands in the State Department alone, one of tens or hundreds of thousands in the government as a whole. Just one of the little people who make the world go round.
As for the rest of your points,
1) He had been in situations like this before, particularly when he was in Iraq. He had always escaped before. It's easy to underestimate the real risk posed. 2) He was in the habit of chatting with his friends from the game every day. This was not a "Hey, I'm in trouble, I think I'll go to the gaming forum" deal. This was more like "Hey, friends who I chat with every day, here's what's going on in my life." 3) It's only an OPSEC breach if he's on a classified/sensitive operation. In fact, to me this seems to be one of the strongest arguments against him being a CIA operative who was trying to use this channel to contact his supervisors. Any CIA operative who went and told random people from Eve Online that he was in a safe house in Benghazi would be an idiot who should be fired. A random IT guy who works for the embassy, not working on a classified operation, is a different matter. 4) I don't think I claimed that the Goons had altruistic leadership, so I'm not sure what point you're trying to make about that. I mean, SA isn't exactly known for being the most friendly place on the internet, is it? The leaders like The Mittani are about what one might expect. I was the one who called him infamous, remember?
But I think I'm done arguing about this now. Feel free to go on living in your deluded little world.
Sean Smith had been playing Eve for years. He was one of the most important members of the Goonswarm coalition. He had personally met many of the people he was talking to that night, at the Eve Fanfest and CSM (an elected body that represents the player base's interests to CCP) events in Iceland and in personal visits back home in the U.S.A.
This was not some random bloke using a random website as an inconspicuous spot to get in touch. This was a player deeply involved in the game, who had formed personal, real-life friendships with many of his coalition members over a half-dozen years, chatting with them during a stressful time.
Here are some personal memories from The Mittani, the de facto leader of Goonswarm (Sean's in-game coalition) and a personal friend: http://themittani.com/news/rip-vile-rat In particular, he recalls that they would often have similar situations in 07-08 when Sean was posted in Baghdad. The Mittani is probably the most famous (infamous) Eve player in the world. Many other (less famous) players have posted their memories of Sean, both in-game and in real life, too.
This is not "rabid obsession of liberals" ignoring "the plausible nature of the story." This is people like me who actually know something about the situation getting frustrated at idiots like you and Glenn Beck who don't. Glenn Beck knows nothing about Sean Smith--he just made something up. You know nothing about Sean Smith, but you happily believe Glenn Beck and refuse to do even a little bit of research into it before spouting off a diatribe about how OMG TEH LIBERALS ARE REPPRESING GLEN BEKK!!!
- The U.S. government is indeed looking for missiles to recover, so that no one finds out that we supplied them to terrorists - They find a weapons cache of surface to air missles - Same missiles we supplied during the revolution to take out aircraft. - The CIA agents were forced to call in Stevens, our CIA weapons dealer. - He flies in on short notice and takes an unmarked car to avoid suspicion to meet them - The meeting goes south, he is taken to the closest safe house, which is why he ends up at the poorly secured consulate building. - The message Sean Smith sent to the gaming community was really a message to the CIA telling them they needed help.
You might try reading the summary before you post next time. The phone that includes a micro-SD slot is not the phone that does not include an SD slot.
I'm sure Delaware will be delighted to have out-of-state players using proxies. It means more tax revenue for them, and as long as they can claim they made a reasonable effort to limit it to in-state players they won't get fired.
101 already exists, and means switching protocols. The 1xx series in general is inappropriate.
Microsoft already used 450 as a censorship status code (for censored by Microsoft Parental Controls), so I think 451--with a nod to Ray Bradbury--would be appropriate.
In keeping with the 3-digit status codes we already have and the use of the 4xx series to indicate that the client has apparently made an error, I think status code 451 might be more appropriate.
Following one anonymous coward's idea that she might be registered under her maiden name, another anonymous coward found her registration as Candice Leonard and a record of her marriage to Richard Schwager in 1999. I just though I would bring this to the attention of people who do not read anonymous cowards, so that you know who to complain about to the Texas State Bar:
She has not been disbarred or suspended, though her recent actions seem to warrant it...
Though it's not relevant in this case, you're absolutely right about attorneys not letting their bar membership lapse. My dad maintained his bar membership for more than 30 years after he stopped practicing, even though he hated being a lawyer and never had any intention of going back into practice.
Please only do try to do this if her statistics background is actually good. Based on my experience (I did my undergrad in math and masters in Statistics), very few undergrad math programs will give you anything close to the background you need to do intelligent experimental design and valid statistical analysis.
Slashdot Mirror
I recently read When God Talks Back by T.M. Luhrmann, and she talks about this. She's a (non-religious) anthropologist who spend several years attending and participating in charismatic evangelical churches to try to understand what makes these sorts of religious people tick, and it's fascinating. While some of them are legitimately crazy, she concludes that most of them are not--they are ordinary thoughtful people who do question and examine their faith, and conclude that it holds up.
I highly recommend it.
Perhaps you've forgotten that Microsoft backed HD-DVD against Blu-Ray.
They're asking for £360,000 (~ $580,000) on Kickstarter, a target I very much doubt they'll meet. Feeling a little greedy, are we?
One of my favorite things about the library at the university where I did my undergrad was that the shelves where they sorted books that had been returned before placing them back where they went were out in the open. Any given day I could walk by and browse through a couple thousand books that had been returned that day or the day before--a snapshot of books on every topic that people thought were worth reading (or, at least, worth checking out).
I think there's a lot of value in "transparent" libraries.
It's Forbes. It's designed for rich old people with poor eyesight.
Should be "Band Uses Nuclear Isotopes to Make 'Music'."
Buy a second power brick.
Just moved to NC this year, and one of the things I love is how easy they make it to vote early, no excuse needed--including registering at the time you vote. It took me all of ten minutes to register and vote.
Also, we use a very clean optical-scan ballot, so less confusion, no touch-screen calibration issues, and a paper trail. I was really very pleased.
I strongly disagree. I've read many hundreds of books over the course of my life. I've never kept careful count, but looking at the Kindle I bought about 18 months ago, I have about 100 books I've read on there in that time. I've probably also read at least a dozen books in hard copy in the last 18 months--I do most but not all of my reading on my Kindle these days. Many books I've read and mostly forgotten and can't identify any specific impact they had on me, though I have no doubt that collectively they have changed me. But there are a few--maybe a dozen--that I would say have definitely had significant, identifiable, individual impacts on me (in addition to the general influences that I can't identify). There are a few of these books that I keep re-reading over and over again and just can't stop thinking about.
I honestly pity you if you've never had that experience--if you've never read a book that changed your life.
At least a portion of that purchase would be included (according to one source, Google has said that $5.5 billion of the purchase price was for the patents).
The nearest I can find is this, to appear in the Houston Law Review: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2125515
Particularly these sentences on pp. 3-4:
"In 2012, Google spent $12.5B to buy Motorola Mobility and its patents, and $5.2B in 2011 on R&D. In 2011, Apple spent $2.4B on R&D but contributed more, approximately $2.6B, to a single transaction to buy patents from Nortel."
There are citations on all four figures, including a note that Google says $5.5 billion of the price for Motorola Mobility was for their patents.
The author, Colleen Chien, is actually a law professor at Santa Clara, not at Stanford. According to her CV she did her undergrad at Stanford and had a fellowship at the Stanford law school for eight months in 2006, but she doesn't list any more recent affiliation with Stanford. There is a draft of her article under Stanford's domain: http://www.stanford.edu/dept/law/ipsc/Paper%20PDF/Chien,%20Colleen%20-%20Paper.pdf
Regardless of whether this is actually the NYT's source, and why--if it is--they affiliated it with Stanford, the numbers seem good (you can find the citations on the draft linked above).
[I tracked this down by googling "site:stanford.edu apple google research and development patent" which brought up the draft I linked as the third result. After verifying that it contained the relevant information it was easy to find the listing on SSRN and to track down Colleen Chien's page at Santa Clara. Now that you know my tricks, you, too, can become a master of google-fu, and not have to rely on me to find sources for you!]
Once again you display your ignorance of the situation. Sean Smith was hardly a "high ranking official in the US government." He was not an ambassador. He was an IT worker, one of thousands in the State Department alone, one of tens or hundreds of thousands in the government as a whole. Just one of the little people who make the world go round.
As for the rest of your points,
1) He had been in situations like this before, particularly when he was in Iraq. He had always escaped before. It's easy to underestimate the real risk posed.
2) He was in the habit of chatting with his friends from the game every day. This was not a "Hey, I'm in trouble, I think I'll go to the gaming forum" deal. This was more like "Hey, friends who I chat with every day, here's what's going on in my life."
3) It's only an OPSEC breach if he's on a classified/sensitive operation. In fact, to me this seems to be one of the strongest arguments against him being a CIA operative who was trying to use this channel to contact his supervisors. Any CIA operative who went and told random people from Eve Online that he was in a safe house in Benghazi would be an idiot who should be fired. A random IT guy who works for the embassy, not working on a classified operation, is a different matter.
4) I don't think I claimed that the Goons had altruistic leadership, so I'm not sure what point you're trying to make about that. I mean, SA isn't exactly known for being the most friendly place on the internet, is it? The leaders like The Mittani are about what one might expect. I was the one who called him infamous, remember?
But I think I'm done arguing about this now. Feel free to go on living in your deluded little world.
Here's what's so implausible:
Sean Smith had been playing Eve for years. He was one of the most important members of the Goonswarm coalition. He had personally met many of the people he was talking to that night, at the Eve Fanfest and CSM (an elected body that represents the player base's interests to CCP) events in Iceland and in personal visits back home in the U.S.A.
This was not some random bloke using a random website as an inconspicuous spot to get in touch. This was a player deeply involved in the game, who had formed personal, real-life friendships with many of his coalition members over a half-dozen years, chatting with them during a stressful time.
Here are some personal memories from The Mittani, the de facto leader of Goonswarm (Sean's in-game coalition) and a personal friend:
http://themittani.com/news/rip-vile-rat
In particular, he recalls that they would often have similar situations in 07-08 when Sean was posted in Baghdad. The Mittani is probably the most famous (infamous) Eve player in the world. Many other (less famous) players have posted their memories of Sean, both in-game and in real life, too.
This is not "rabid obsession of liberals" ignoring "the plausible nature of the story." This is people like me who actually know something about the situation getting frustrated at idiots like you and Glenn Beck who don't. Glenn Beck knows nothing about Sean Smith--he just made something up. You know nothing about Sean Smith, but you happily believe Glenn Beck and refuse to do even a little bit of research into it before spouting off a diatribe about how OMG TEH LIBERALS ARE REPPRESING GLEN BEKK!!!
Here is the official summary of the episode from Glenn Beck's website:
http://www.glennbeck.com/2012/09/17/is-the-obama-administration-covering-up-scandalous-details-in-libya-attack/
Note particularly this part at the end:
Audio from the relevant portion of the episode is posted on Soundcloud:
http://soundcloud.com/nivdes/glenn-beck-goonswarm-is
"Goonswarm" is the name of the in-game organization affiliated with Something Awful.
TL;DR: It really did happen.
http://www.crn.com/news/networking/220100939/south-korea-lifts-apple-iphone-ban.htm
Google is your friend.
You might try reading the summary before you post next time. The phone that includes a micro-SD slot is not the phone that does not include an SD slot.
TL;DR: RTFS.
Surely Apple has a patent on undefiled designs?
I'm sure Delaware will be delighted to have out-of-state players using proxies. It means more tax revenue for them, and as long as they can claim they made a reasonable effort to limit it to in-state players they won't get fired.
101 already exists, and means switching protocols. The 1xx series in general is inappropriate.
Microsoft already used 450 as a censorship status code (for censored by Microsoft Parental Controls), so I think 451--with a nod to Ray Bradbury--would be appropriate.
In keeping with the 3-digit status codes we already have and the use of the 4xx series to indicate that the client has apparently made an error, I think status code 451 might be more appropriate.
RIP, Ray Bradbury.
Following one anonymous coward's idea that she might be registered under her maiden name, another anonymous coward found her registration as Candice Leonard and a record of her marriage to Richard Schwager in 1999. I just though I would bring this to the attention of people who do not read anonymous cowards, so that you know who to complain about to the Texas State Bar:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2891243&cid=40199217
She has not been disbarred or suspended, though her recent actions seem to warrant it...
Though it's not relevant in this case, you're absolutely right about attorneys not letting their bar membership lapse. My dad maintained his bar membership for more than 30 years after he stopped practicing, even though he hated being a lawyer and never had any intention of going back into practice.
Please only do try to do this if her statistics background is actually good. Based on my experience (I did my undergrad in math and masters in Statistics), very few undergrad math programs will give you anything close to the background you need to do intelligent experimental design and valid statistical analysis.
And by "above," I mean higher in the comment tree. It actually shows up below.
Anyway, here's my new /. account. Yay!
Use statistics carefully,
Your Friendly Neighborhood Statistician