Tough shit for the police. They have to deal with the same shit everyone else does, poor things. Guess what - we ALL would like to be able to act "without worrying about adverse consequences" - that sure would be nice! Golly, I know I'd like it if my employer promised not to monitor me. I'm apprehensive about being videotaped, too, but I can't do anything about it.

If you're a cop and can't do your job without worrying that you'll violate someone's rights on camera and get caught, well - QUIT NOW, thanks.

I'm not saying cops should have to get permission in triplicate before taking any action, but their actions should be recorded just like citizens are recorded, those recordings should be accessible to the puiblic, and police should be held accountable for their actions. What Jim Pasco seems to think is that it's OK for police to record citizens in case they are breaking the law, but not OK for police to be recorded in case *they* are breaking the law.

As usual, no information about oversight, abuse detection, or anything similar. It's the same old "just trust us, we won't use our powerful new toy for anything bad, we promise." Puh-lease. The same people who claim that law abiding citizens with nothing to hide shouldn't care about privacy-invading constant surveillance are also the peopel who do their utmost to make darn sure no one can oobserve *their* activities or punish *them* for any infractions. "We don't trust you at all, but we expect you to just trust us." I'm so filled with confidence.

How about this for a LONG TERM plan?

1) Start phasing out fossil fuels as much as possible and replacing them with renewables like solar and wind etc.
2) Build nuclear plants that produce Hyrdorgen at the plant
3) Run everything else (cars, power plants, industry, etc) on Hydrogen.
4) Once the Hydrogen economy is built, start phsaing out nuclear and replacing it with a wide mix of renewables.

People always say that the problem with Hydrogen is that it takes enegry to produce and there is no delivery infrastructure. But nuclear can generate tons of electricity on-site to make the Hydrogen, and the infrastructure can be built slowly - start with large industrys (aviation, factories, heavy equipment) and gradually expand the network to towns (fueling/"gas" stations) and finally homes. Hydrogen is the cleanest fukle in the universe and the most abundant element, and they are constantly discovering new ways to separate it. It also doesn't stop on cloudy/windless days.

It only makes sense - corporations have found out that while outsourcing to the developing world results in cheap labor that's easy to abuse, there are all kinds of nasty side effects. Instead of going to all those poor countries full of brown people, why not *bring the slaves to the US*? That way, you can still pay them next to nothing and abuse them as much as you want, but you don't have to deal with flying to some remote part of the world! You can keep them in line by danging their visas just out of reach. That way you can have a nice breakfast, abuse your slaves all day, and get in a nice round of golf! And all it costs is some really minor payments to congresspeople. It's win/woin, really. Well, except for the slaves. But who cares about them? It's their fault for being born poor and in the wrong country.

I don't mind if you or anyone else at Slashdot posts stuff like this when it's relevant and interesting, which this one is. I don't evenm care if you get money for it, though it should be labeled as such if so. As long as it's relevant and ionteresting to me, that's what I care about. It Slashdot makes a few bucks in the process, then fine - win/win.

I do mind when the quality of the material is poor and it's not relevant or interesting. Then I feel like my time is being wasted.

I don't know for a fact if Slashdot got money for this or any other posting, and I don't care if you do. But remember that I come to Slashdot for that "geek mentality", for thing that are interesting to genuine geeks. Don't dilute your brand. If my non-geek friends would have any idea what a posting here is about, then it shouldn't be here.

"Extraordinary claims requier extraordinary evidence." You can't just make a wild claim like that and then shine it on with "oh, it;'s everywhere, YOU go find it."

Provide evidence or I call bullshit and go on my way assuming that you're just another internet crank. If it's so easy, YOU provide the evidence. It's like saying "the moon is made of green cheese" and then when I say "prove it" you say "go find out for yourself." Or, closer to homer, saying "an all-powewerful superbeing naed god exists." "Really? Prove it." "No, you DISprove it!"

Are you denying that he's on the board of directors of an organization whose purpose is to oppose gay marriage?

Hey, it wasn't Wagner's fault that Hitler liked his music. Get your facts straight.

Ender's Game is not as "terrible written" as your post. He uses articles - and adverbs, too! Plus, he knows how to not overuse commas. Pardon me if I ignore your penetrating literary criticism.

I can disagree with Card and give him freedom of speech at the same time. I'm saying "I disagree with him", not "I think he should be prevented from expressing his opinions."

He chooses to be on the board of an organization I feel is hateful. That's his right.

And it's my right to stop buying his stuff, which I will now do.

When you say that "history shows" that this "hove mind" is "usually wrong, can you give some examples? And remember, you said "usually", so I expect quite a lot of examples, and good ones. Sure, you can say the obvious things like "nazis" and "slavery", but you didn't say "it can be wrong' or "it's sometimes wrong", you said *usually*, which I take to mean "more often than not". If the grup opinion is so wrong so often, how have we even achieved society?

At least we don't spend our time on online forums saying nasty things to strangers in ant attempt to feel superior. Does insultinbg others really make you feel better? I think you're the one who needs to grow up and read something that will improve the quality of your sad hateful condition. I would suggest the Dhammapada.

I support Orson Scott card's right to have his opinions and to include them in his art, or not, as he sees fit. I can respect that.

I support DC's right to hire whichever writers they want for their projects, and to take the position that they don't judge writers on their views. I can respect that.

And given both the rights above, I have the right to boycott Card and never gain buy anything he writes - a right which I will exercse now and in the future. I also have the right to encourage others to not buy his stuff. I woudl never try to prevent him from expressing his opinion, but I'm not required to support him, and my refusing to buy his stuff is not stifling his freedom of expression.

Untrue - that doesn't mean you can't make things better, it just means you will either never achieve perfection, or else will move on to something esle that needs bettering. Think it through.

As someone who has been reading Slashdot almost since it began (5 digit UID) and who has "Excellent" Karma, I have to add my voice and agree that this kind of blatant product placement is extremely annoying. If there must be advertisements, then there must, but they should be visually separated from the news content and clearly labeled as advertisements. If Slashdot continues this way it will lose the loyalty of its longtime staunch readers such as myself and become just Yet Another Tech News Site only interested in cramming as many ads in readers faces as possible. Ho-hum. I can always go elsewhere if the editors want to treat me like an idiot. You can't sneak this stuff by us, editors. We notice. This one stuck out like a sore thumb. The answer isn't "let's try to hide it better", the answer is to just not do it at all. I understand that shareholders want revenue. But do it some other way, don't pollute the news stream. Keep it up, and the kind of reader you want to reach will drop you fast - people like me, senior IT people with decades of experience and a lot of control over purchasing.

You have now been officially spanked. Go thou and do no more evil.