ok, but many (but not all) courts have upheld anonymous speech as being part of the free speech the constitution protects. talley v california 1960 is the landmark. mcintyre v ohio (1995) is the best known. Doe v Cahill, Dendrite,and 2theMart are cases that apply this to discovery. I have not yet read the Illinois case to see if it gets the balance right. Generally, courts are saying the plaintiff has to show they have a case before they can get at the data, because otherwise people bring bogus cases just to mine the data to silence their enemies.
- arbitrary aardvark

Reason can oppose the subpoena. Court cases sell magazines. The lawyer to hire is Paul Alan Levy of Public Citizen. He's the expert on anonymity and subpoenas. I'm a lawyer who does anonymous speech cases, but Levy's focus is n the discovery process in litigation, and what are the right standards; how much does the party seeking the subpoena have to prove in order to accommodate first amendment interests? The relevant cases include Dendrite, 2theMart, and Doe v Cahill.

Doe v. Cahill, 884 A.2d 451 (Del. 2005), is a significant case in the realm of anonymous internet speech and the First Amendment. While similar issues had been tackled involving criticism of a publicly traded company,[1] the case marks the first time a U.S. State Supreme Court addressed the issue of anonymous internet speech and defamation "in the context of a case involving political criticism of a public figure."[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D...

if only there were some organism in nature that was a natural foe of invading ant armies.

I agree with your first two sentences. Mod parent up.

However, the right to a secret ballot is already in the Colorado constitution. (It's also in some federal legislation called HAVA.)

This is a federal judge, properly finding that plaintiffs haven't asserted any controlling authority showing there is a federal question in the case, so it's filed in the wrong court.

I have not read the complaint in this case. If I'd been writing the complaint, I would have used equal protection, tied into the state right to a secret ballot. Under Bush v Gore, if they do it one way in Denver, they should do it that way in Boulder too. But I don't think there was an equal protection claim raised.

(I'm a former election lawyer, and I'm a former Boulder County officeholder, and I'm aware of this case, but I haven't read any of the documents, so I'm speculating.)

:They took our Jobs!

2000 F to first make glass from sand, but only 300 c to remelt the glass. and a mix of sand and cullet (recycled glass) goews at some in between temperature.
that's why it pays to recycle glass; it's not like there's any shortage of sand.

Let me tell you the story
Of a man named Charlie
On a tragic and fateful day
He put ten cents in his pocket,
Kissed his wife and family
Went to ride on the MTA

Charlie handed in his dime
At the Kendall Square Station
And he changed for Jamaica Plain
When he got there the conductor told him,
"One more nickel."
Charlie could not get off that train.

Chorus:
                                                Did he ever return,
                                                No he never returned
                                                And his fate is still unlearn'd
                                                He may ride forever
                                                'neath the streets of Boston
                                                He's the man who never returned.

Now all night long
Charlie rides through the tunnels
                                                                  the station
Saying, "What will become of me?
Crying
How can I afford to see
My sister in Chelsea
Or my cousin in Roxbury?"

"A space probe that takes 9 years to go from earth to Pluto would take over 100,000 years to get to even our closest neighbor, a mere 4.2 light years away."

Your major point that stars are really really far away is an important one. Stross or Scalzi blogged about that a while back.

However, I'm going to nitpick your sentence quoted above,and suggest that your conclusion may be wrong as well.

Talking about a space probe that takes 9 years to go to pluto is like talking about how long a snail would take to go to hawaii. In snail terms, it's too far. But I've been to hawaii and back. Also, I think you used a linear projection. But spacecraft don't usually travel linearly. Assuming some sort of fuel or propulsive mechanism, (a problematic assumption, i know) they keep accelerating to turn-around point. Speed of spacecraft increases by exponential factors, sort of a moore's law of spaceships. Within 100 years, some kind of fusion drive or other advanced technology should be doable. Make yourself into a software simulation, on a piece of hardware that can withstand 20 g's and weighs a gram, and has a fusion drive first stage to get it started,and you shave a lot of time off the trip. How to slow down at the other end I don't have a solution for yet.

the best touch screen based system i've seen, designed for ease of use by non-computer users, was the PLATO-IV system.
in 1982.

thanks. i wasn't sure if endor and endore were the same person. endore wrote the screenplay for that peter lorre movie where he gets transplanted hands from a murderer. also wrote other horror-type screenplays.

found it, with help from redditt
http://www.scribbleandshutter.com/2007/writing/daybeaver/daydragon01.htm

there's a wonderful story in some sf anthology i read back in the dim ages. a scientist does an operation on some alligators to restore the 4chambered heart, and the alligators then grow wings, become dragons, and conquer the world.