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Food Activist's Life Becomes The Life of Brian Screenshot-sm 165

Posted by samzenpus from the you-are-all-individuals dept.
krou writes "After food activist and author Raj Patel appeared on The Colbert Report to promote his latest book, things seemed to be going well, until he began to get inundated with emails asking if he was 'the world teacher.' In events ripped straight from The Life of Brian, it would seem that Raj Patel's life story ticks all the boxes necessary to fulfill prophecies made by Benjamin Creme, founder of religious sect Share International. After the volume of emails and inquiries got worse, Patel eventually wrote a message on his website stating categorically that he was not the Messiah. Sure enough, 'his denial merely fanned the flames for some believers. In a twist ripped straight from the script of the comedy classic, they said that this disavowal, too, had been prophesied.'"

Comment How far does this go? (Score 2, Interesting) 297

by Lil'wombat (#30962770) Attached to: Amazon Pulls Book Publisher's Listings; Ebook Wars Underway?

I wonder how far Amazon will take this? Since the retail book industry is essentially consignment sales, does Amazon have the option to return all Macmillian books in inventory as unsold? What about pre-orders for unreleased books? Now Macmillian is owned by Simon and Schuster which is a division of CBS.

Will Amazon expand their conflict to all Simon and Schuster Titles?

Maybe stop selling CBS and Viacom products as well. (DVD and CD's)?

This could get real interesting, real fast. FYI: Amazon stock closed at $125 friday, CBS at $12.93
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Own Your Own Fighter Jet Screenshot-sm 222

Posted by samzenpus from the only-one-on-the-block dept.
gimmebeer writes "The Russian Sukhoi SU-27 has a top speed of Mach 1.8 (more than 1,300 mph) and has a thrust to weight ratio greater than 1 to 1. That means it can accelerate while climbing straight up. It was designed to fight against the best the US had to offer, and now it can be yours for the price of a mediocre used business jet."
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Man Sues Neighbor For Not Turning Off His Wi-Fi Screenshot-sm 428

Posted by samzenpus from the have-you-never-wondered-why-I-drink-only-distilled-water-or-rain-water-and-only-pure-grain-alcohol dept.
Scyth3 writes "A man is suing his neighbor for not turning off his cell phone or wireless router. He claims it affects his 'electromagnetic allergies,' and has resorted to being homeless. So, why doesn't he check into a hotel? Because hotels typically have wireless internet for free. I wonder if a tinfoil hat would help his cause?"

Comment Re:How do you think it works in the EU ? (Score 1) 507

by Lil'wombat (#30572782) Attached to: NY Times, LA Times Want Amazon To Collect More State Taxes

Yes, and there are several counties that have come into existence since the last update. 10 years is bit too infrequent for a business.

The 2002 TIGER/Line files include files for all counties and statistically equivalent entities in the United States as well as files for Puerto Rico and the Island Areas. The 2002 TIGER/Line files are released by county or statistically equivalent entity based on the current boundaries in effect as of January 1, 2002 as reported to the Census Bureau by April 1, 2002. Since Census 2000 there have been changes in the universe of counties or statistically equivalent entities. In Colorado, Broomfield County was created from parts of Adams, Boulder, Jefferson, and Weld Counties. This change has resulted in the creation of a separate TIGER/Line file for Broomfield County, Colorado. In Virginia, the independent city of Clifton Forge changed its status to become Clifton Forge town and is now part of Alleghany County, Virginia; it appears in the Alleghany County, Virginia TIGER/Line file. Beginning with the 2002 TIGER/Line files, the Census Bureau no longer will produce a TIGER/Line file for the Midway Islands.
Programming

The State of Ruby VMs — Ruby Renaissance 89

Posted by Soulskill from the take-your-pick dept.
igrigorik writes "In the short span of just a couple of years, the Ruby VM space has evolved to more than just a handful of choices: MRI, JRuby, IronRuby, MacRuby, Rubinius, MagLev, REE and BlueRuby. Four of these VMs will hit 1.0 status in the upcoming year and will open up entirely new possibilities for the language — Mac apps via MacRuby, Ruby in the browser via Silverlight, object persistence via Smalltalk VM, and so forth. This article takes a detailed look at the past year, the progress of each project, and where the community is heading. It's an exciting time to be a Rubyist."

Comment Re:Who's Steve Dahl (Score 3, Informative) 383

by Lil'wombat (#30073082) Attached to: Your Opinion Counts At CNN — But Should It?

Close. Steve Dahl is a former #1 rated daytime talk radio host turned weekly columnist for the Chicago Tribune when his the balance of his contract was bought out and a non-compete in place during a radio format change. His contribution to history was the 1979 riot at Cominsky Park during a double header intermission. The riot occurred during the Disco Demolition entertainment event when a large pile of records (discounted admission if you brought a record) was exploded in center field.

I think Steve Dahl would agree that your statement is only 2/3rds correct.

a better statement

A professional idiot with a Mac and a DSL

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