Episode 7 : A crushed hope - Return of the Binks

Now if the Netherlands would re-relax their laws concerning foreigners purchasing recreational drugs, I could really see a huge spike in tourism next year

I can't remember the details, I think it was a restaurant or hotel, maybe a bed and breakfast or something? I know it was here on slashdot earlier too, but the chain of events went something like this, sorry if I get the events a little mixed up or wrong.

Business sues google because of some reason, perhaps an unfavorable review or something
Business takes google to court, eventually gets a court order and forces google to remove the listing
Google complies, removes listing (not sure if they had to pay)
Google also removes the site listing from their search index
Business complains, "we didn't want all our info removed! Just the bad stuff!" or something along those lines.

Do you have some better terms for those words, that are "less offensive" or perhaps "not insulting"? Is there a better way Dawkins can label these people as that won't be insulting? Being insulted or offended is something a recipient is responsible for, not the speaker. And it doesn't matter how it's phrased - whatever words or methods he uses to describe the religious masses will be interpreted as hostile or aggressive. Really, what other words can be better used to describe the 4 you mentioned there?

They're not brainwashed, they have a "highly conditioned belief system"
They're not ignorant - they're "knowledgeably challenged"
They're not unthining - they're "consciously challenged"
and they're not delusional - they're just suffering from a bit of "truthiness perception disorder", right?

The definition of ignorance is a lack of knowledge, education, or awareness. That's it! There's really no better word to describe the religious masses - because they don't know, they don't have knowledge. They "know" their religion is true, and don't question it. Not questioning things tends to make you ignorant.

What's wrong with the word delusional - did you look up the definition of the word? It's pretty appropriate. Some of the first few search results.
A delusion is a belief held with strong conviction despite superior evidence to the contrary
having false or unrealistic beliefs or opinions
a mistaken or misleading opinion, idea, belief, etc: he has delusions of grandeur

How is that not a suitable definition? Maybe more people are delusional that you realize, simply as the way you were brought up. Even if you're a more moderate religious person (i.e. evolution is real) then the definition of delusional still applies to any concept of belief. Believe in a superior being / higher power - despite having ZERO evidence, and when all evidence to date contradicts every holy scripture - then yea that's delusional.

It's not just religion - look at how superstitious people are when it comes to other things. Horoscopes, superstitious habits, reiki, tarot cards etc.. people believe the darnedest things. If I had to pull a number out of my ass, I'd bet at least 80% of North America is delusional about something in their lives - even as harmless as something like wearing some trinket in hopes of their local sports team winning. But when it's applied to religion - O NO you're insulting my beliefs and so aggressive!

The touché screen - is that some special type of app that automatically finds the top 10 wittiest remarks (relevant to the current display on the screen)? That sounds like a legitimately patentable idea to me. A damn good one at that.

This video sums it up pretty nicely. Posting fake job ads, claim there aren't enough qualified local folk to fill this job, then claim an H1-B is necessary!

"What's our goal here? Well our goal is clearly NOT to find a qualified U.S. worker. That sounds funny, but that's what we're trying to do here!"

Well... I was attempting to make more of a (failed) humorous point about the ridiculousness of the premise that "Mining asteroids could present legal trouble in the United States!". If there's any chance that corporations won't mine asteroids (or at least run into legal trouble) because they're - then it's probably an equally likely (and ridiculous) that anyone attempting to land on the moon and establish a moon base would have to buy the property from Dennis Hope, or one of the millions of people he's sold "moon land" too. I'm sure the actual value of meteorite or an actual asteroid segment is pretty high per kg

Damn, I better stake my claim before it's too late. Move over Dennis Hope , there's a new real estate mogul on the market. Asteroids for sale here, only $500 each!

I highly doubt that the U.S. or any entity can claim jurisdiction on the asteroid belt and any materials, or mining techniques there. Even if they did, this doesn't seem like something that can be enforced. Maybe with tariffs on goods coming from the asteroids? Even if there was, I'm sure there's plenty of other people willing to buy the goods if they don't like the U.S. rules

Exactly, DNT is useless and the whole concept may have been deliberately designed to be useless. A little header where "DNT=1" in the html and... Presto! No more tracking!

Except that there's no way to actually enforce that companies won't track
Except that we still won't know if our browsers will give out our information even with this flag on
Except that [the Digital Advertising Alliance plainly said that it "does not require companies to honor DNT," ]
Except that there's too much money at stake to just prevent sites from gathering your data. Even if your data is anonymized (meaning you set the flag on, and you don't see targeted ads as a result) - there's no guarantee that your data isn't still being collected by 3rd parties from the sites you go to. This is why there was such a fuss over the decision to make IE10 do-not-track's setting off by default. The only way you can guarantee your data isn't being used is to prevent it from being sent in the first place, or somehow falsify the data being sent back to the server

All science fiction, but I've read quite a few of his books. Most of his novels are based around now or in the near future, and I often have some eye-opening experiences about how life & the world could be so much different if a few circumstances were changed.

I'm mostly in favor of the idea of "some basic internet access for free for everyone" as some sort of entitlement - I like the idea that if someone wishes to seek knowledge on the internet, but can't afford some basic internet for themselves - then the government (or municipality) should be providing some basic access. Free access to knowledge, basic access to learning materials and all that jazz. But they already do that (can't say if this is the case in the US or other developed nations, please correct me if I'm wrong). I worked in several remote work sites near small towns during several summers, and even the smaller towns had libraries where anyone could go use the internet for free. Most people already have some sort of basic free access to internet

Whether you consider this a "right" or "entitlement", this is pretty much in the same category as food. There's practically no starvation in the US or Canada in this day - you'll get food stamps, or a free meal at a homeless shelter, food bank donations or something if you absolutely can't afford food yourself. You won't get to go to an all-you-can-eat buffet, and you won't get lobster or caviar as your meal, but you won't starve. Similarly, you won't get high speed internet access, or access to porn, video games for your basic provided internet access at the library, nor will it be 24/7. But you can have access if you want for free. Mobile broadband as a human right? That seems fairly ridiculous, how is that even possible without first providing a mobile device to everyone? Mobile broadband as a right is a ridiculous concept.

Oh jeez, there's no satisfying some people. I can understand when nerds might dislike Matthew Mcconaughey's latest rom com because of jealousy, or because the plot is unrealistic, or because they have a Y chromosome. But even when they make a movie glorifying irritable, overweight neckbeards - arguably slashdot's greatest demographic - there's still haters!

What's that Baxter? You managed to injure 7 workers and set the factory on fire? How'd you do that? Heck, I'm not even mad, that's amazing!