Interesting note, under US sanctions Iraq's water supply became poisoned and killed many more children than your Taliban citation. Who knew right?

http://www.emro.who.int/publications/emhj/0604/20.htm

The idea that the TSA can provide 100% security is an illusion. We can easily achieve 99% security at a relatively low price, financially and in rights, but that last 1% costs us everything. We all know that drunk driving kills more people than terrorists in this country. We also know that longer yellow lights and a delay between red & green lights saves lives yet many cities keep those times short to pull in more red light tickets for funding. Like many posters here have stated, we have lost ourselves to the fear that something could happen. It's true that something can and will happen. We have to find a way to accept that and move forward as a nation. As citizens we are now always on high alert for terrorists on planes, and we have shown since flight 93 that we will intervene and prevent mass casualties. We don't need to abuse ourselves any further in the name of the security.

Found a picture and yeah that looks like an alien, or some kind of new phenomenon for certain:

http://cdn.static.ovimg.com/episode/1155981.jpg

http://andrzej.dabrowka.com/Gamma1.jpg

I hope there are more on Mercury, Mars, Jupiter's moons, Saturn's moons, and Pluto. ;-)

A true titan. One of us. You did well Steve. Rest easy.

I'm so sick of hearing about this all the time! Non-stop coverage everywhere I look, and now slashdot as well? Can't we just pretend that nothing happened and let the bankers do what they do best, make the world safer for the children?

Screw the invisibility cloak, give me a girdle of giant strength!

Just to clarify Obama was given the peace prize for his Cairo Speech in 2009 known as "A New Beginning". Although there may have been people who deserved the prize more than Obama, that speech did have an important impact on western relations with Muslim leaders around the world. You may not agree with their decision but your assertion that Obama had not done anything seems myopic.

I'm not certain if I've missed something, but the logical error presented in this dialog does not appear to have any connection to the above poster. Is the rabid dog supposed to be tyrants & the shooter Wikileaks? Is the pet dog supposed to be the American diplomatic system? Can you please clarify your point?

They think they're geeks just because they like Joss Whedon, or Happy Tree Friends... I remember when to be a real geek we had to bite the heads off chickens!!! pbft!

Yeah I don't think the shooter fits in directly with any major ideology. That said Mother Jones has two very interesting articles on the language he uses and reports from friends close to him. They mention the "sovereign citizen" movement as a possible influence. I don't know what the truth is but I know that most communist are not real big fans of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf.

http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/01/sovereign-citizens-jared-lee-loughner

http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/01/jared-lee-loughner-friend-voicemail-phone-message

Peace my brothers & sisters,
End15

Don't worry there's not much to see...

Instead of a big dark blur, I see a big bright blur.

hum... wait a minute... that means Pluto is actually Tatooine!

I knew it was real... I knew it!

(runs off to become a Jedi)

I have a great fondness for the human spaceflight program, especially the ISS which has given us some useful engineering and science. For the most part however the human spaceflight program appears to be for PR reasons. And that does have value as well but I think the real debate is what direction do we want to spend the bulk of the money going into NASA.

Probes like Cassini and landers like Phoenix, Spirit & Opportunity have given us much more science at a fraction of the cost. They have allowed us to understand the Earth (currently our only source survival), our solar system, and the greater universe in detail that we could not have gotten by trying to send humans everywhere. It seems that it would be wise for us to continue to send out as many probes and robotic systems to every planet, moon, and asteroid in our solar system to gain deeper knowledge about their makeup. If we are thinking in terms of human exploration of space we need to know what is out there before we start going ourselves. It makes sense cost wise not to mention in terms human safety.

And really the bottom line right now is getting to the science and engineering benefits. The AI research that goes into NASA alone has direct benefits that we can all enjoy. It would be nice to see a century of robotic exploration followed by an effective human exploration program.

For those who suggest that this is a matter of survival, I would agree on a very long time scale. But if we can not ecologically maintain Earth, which is rich with life, there is no way we are going to survive on a planet that is lifeless and or alien to our biology.

It hurts to let go of human space flight for now, but it might be the smarter thing to do in the long run.