Do you know you've had zero side effects? My dad's heard valve was damaged by measles (no vaccine when he was a kid) and he didn't know until he was in his 50s and it stopped functioning properly.

In any case I've ridden in cars and jet aircraft without seat belts and am still around but that doesn't mean I don't use them when they've available.

Actually vaccines aren't big moneymakers and in in fact stopped being produced at all in the US until Congress stepped in.

Your subject line raises an interesting point: I'd never before recognized that the Koch brothers' advertising and astroturfing is just a DDoS of the airwaves (and public discourse).

I already knew it is evil, but this takes it to a new level!

Actually I thank you guys in the USA (well your grandparents) since if you had not fought that war I would not have been born. My mother had the "pleasure" of actually having Japanese overlords, and while my dad didn't it was only because the US occupied the country before the Japanese could do more than lob a few shells at it.

For that matter my inlaws were in a country run by the Nazis and would likely not have met either...and the US really didn't have to enter that war at all. Nor did they need to spend the money rebuilding the place.

So every time I see some boneheaded american thing (and it's a big place so there's no shortage of stupidity, shitheads and whatever) I remember that they are capable of greatness.

(apologies for the serious response to the flippant remark)

... and being gay does not mean someone has some aesthetic taste.

(sorry, just wanted both the inverse and converse represented). The trolling A/C is a loser. I really like the submitter's question, not because I particularly care about cable trays but because it shows that she or he is the opposite of the BOFH: asking how to fit the various users' needs rather than forcing people to just put up with what IT wants to give 'em.

So you're saying the test of humanity is whether you can enter a contract or not?

In that case I suppose post partum abortions would be reasonable up until the age of humanness has arrived. Which I hope is before teanagerhood, or else the race will be wiped out in a single generation!

That's an interesting list, and it's my understanding that nothing he's released so far has included the names of double agents or others who could be killed, and little to none of the oner stuff on your list either.

Which just further supports the argument that he's a good guy, as if anyone on /. didn't already believe that.

Indeed, and Microsoft only spend $2 on that disk and box of Windows you bought.

And come to think of it the price they charge for Widows is outrageous, since I not only have to pay for it but also each bug that was written, then found in testing, and then fixed. And why should they consider the money spent on writing test cases as part of their costs? Outrageous!

At least with Linux I can get a full refund. Take that, Microsoft!

Indeed, one must file six copies the B17XX44/3, signed by a Nazgûl. Each must be bound in a black folders, one marked "original" and all others marked "duplicate" although one must be in an orange binder and labeled "microbiology". A different Nazgûl must file each copy in halfling blood. Once approval is obtained, regular TPS reports must be filed until the trip is completed. Even then you must remain with your orc tour group, and most importantly keep track of your luggage! Losing, say, a mithril shirt could cause major problems!

Exiting is a separate problem although Eagles may be used by prearrangement.

PS: That sentence about the black and orange binders is an actual FDA regulation I had to follow to file an IND.

Au contraire, I hear they can be destroyed by simply casting them into mount doom.

On the contrary it is the party manifesto.

Yeah, they wanted Japan out of China, and deservedly so. The US was doing the right thing.

I don't quibble over "blockade" vs "embargo" -- they blocked Japan from the panama canal, for example. But regardless, it was economic pressure, and the Japanese imperial war council chose to respond by fighting. This kind of pressure (called "sanctions" these days, I suppose from the UN sanctioning the restrictions) doesn't work much better now than it did then, unfortunately, though I can't think of much of a better alternative.

Why can't everyone just get along?

The imperial government of Japan bears full responsibility for the pacific war, no question about it.

Having said that, I do take exception to part about it being a "cowardly attack." It's was a brave, gutsy move, and it could have succeeded (although even if it had succeeded it probably would only have delayed the inevitable). The US blockade on Japanese shipping and imports had caused intolerable problems so something had to change. Disastrously, what changed was an expansion, rather than reduction, of the war.

Please do not interpret this as any defense of the Japanese. Both of my parents faced Japanese invasion -- and not all of my relatives survived the occupation. I would not have been born had the Americans not been willing to enter the war and completely finish the job. But even with all of that I cannot consider the attack on Perl Harbor to be in any way "cowardly" -- unless you can take the position that violence is always the coward's way out (a position I do respect, though perhaps cannot share).

All that basic science will be considered in the national interest of Japan/Europe/Singapore/India/Brazil et al and will help their industries instead.

Americans will still have access to all those cool devices, medical treatments and the like. Just not first.

(Actually what will really happen is that every grant proposal will include a boilerplate paragraph justifying it as being "in the national interest" and everything will go back to normal).

I am fascinated that 75% of respondents think they could drive a car better than a computer. Personally I suffer from the Inverse Dunning-Kruger effect: I sincerely hope that a majority of people drive better than I!

I can't wait for the self-driving car. Though I suspect the Google self-driving cars will be free, but if I want to drive to a restaurant it will just "happen" to drive by McDonald's and will offer me a coupon.

Ahh, so it's your fault that they are failing. If you'd paid your fine for not returning it for all those years they'd have all the money they'd need to stay in business!