People take this so seriously. Yes, families and friends may be saddened by a suicide. If the deceased is a celebrity, there will be headlines. But really let's look at the big picture.

What is it- 7 billion people we have now? Maybe 1 billion who are starving, diseased, who have no hope for a full life? Even in the 'First World' there are thousands of homeless parents and children. We are killing hundreds, perhaps thousands each day with war, violence and mayhem. We are killing more with ordinary traffic and other accidents.

But some poor soul in the First World, who had opportunities, family and friends decides to off him/herself and it's a tragedy? It's only because we see ourselves in that person, and we don't see ourselves in the billion who are starving.

Lighten up, people. Just because we have money and computers and a decent car to drive to the club, doesn't mean that our lives are worth more than that billion. If you really want to shed a tear ...

As long as Fecebook blocks my access to their content, I doubt they really want to let more of the world on the internet. They want more in their proprietary corner of the internet. Others (non info-sharing, non-members ...) are not welcome.

- Sorry, that date is a typo - the news is two days old.
US News must be struggling like other print publishers.

"SUNDAY, Feb. 22, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- A wearable patch that safely and gradually exposes the body to small amounts of peanut allergen appears effective in easing the allergy, an early new study shows."

http://health.usnews.com/healt...

Ordinary cookies are rarely a problem but web bugs can be. These can be found at slashdot. Some sites have 20 of 'em. Ghostery seems to stop them.

Google AdWords Conversion: Advertising
Google Dynamic Remarketing: Advertising
ScoreCard Research Beacon: Beacons, Analytics
WebTrends: Beacons

Of course your government, your religious leader and probably your boss don't want you to be any smarter. Other people will hate you too. Be stupid, be happy, that's my motto.

If we learned anything from The Hitchhiker's Guide, it is that the mice are the supreme species on earth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...
What's the point of injecting inferior genes into their brains?

On a more serious note, it will probably be a long time before genetic science can safely determine the source of intelligence or any way to manipulate it. And a long time beyond that to overcome social and legal impediments to using the knowledge in any practical way. Expect to be just as dumb as you are for the rest of your life.

"I'm pretty sure all regulations are available on the internet."

You may find it interesting that the Municipal Code for my current city, and probably yours, is a copyrighted document prepared by a private company. Illegal for you to make a copy without paying them. Our city doesn't have the resources to create such a document. The publisher is able to create a generic municipal code and then make minor alterations for individual cities.

I worked for the private law firm that wrote the Chicago municipal code. The attorney whose name appeared as author was simply the head of a committee, but he had connections and got all the credit. That was a merger of private/public cooperation long ago that probably was beneficial to the City and lucrative for my boss.

Ownership of the law, in written form, will be more commercialized over time. Slashdot readers are pushing for scientific journals to be more 'open' ... This is another place where openness is important.

"Ask Slashdot: How Can Technology Improve the Judicial System?" - this is it.

These allow you to edit a web page. Remove the ads, the fluff, anything you don't like. Or simply select the text that interests you and poke CMD-i to isolate it. Print, copy the text, or make a PDF if you want to keep it. Aardvark is legacy, may not work on your newer Firefox. Hack seems to work well.

If you have a name like Ichabod Rumpelstiltskin you will find it hard to hide on the internet. Change it to John or Mary Smith and you will be difficult to pinpoint. Change it to common words and searching you out will be nearly impossible. Consider words like 'and', 'the', 'if', or 'swell'. You could start a baseball team and call it Who's On First. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...