So why don't we mandate all spinach is cooked prior to being sold? Hell, let's mandate that raw vegetables stop being sold completely, we can pasteurize them too (read: boil, blanche, broil, bake, whatever is most convenient)! Of course a salad will be a little different but in 50 years no one will remember what a salad used to be like anyways.

Also, why stop at salad. Sometimes children get head lice at school. Let's pasteurize them as well (read: shave their little heads).

Point is, there's lots of things that COULD have bacteria on them. That's going to naturally happen because we don't photosynthesize for our energy. But just because there's a small, outside chance that someone might get sick doesn't mean we should ruin the experience for everyone.

Furthermore, even though the law allows raw milk to be sold, I don't think most milk in the european grocer's fridge is unpasteurized. Instead, it's used for things like artisinal cheeses.

I call BS for your call on BS.

I live in Europe and I can't count the number of times I saw a cat or dog or other animals in a kitchen.

The story above was in the NY times a few years back.

Was there a head mounted camera incident in a french mcdonalds?

Actually I think you're misinformed. How exactly does it follow that just because people die of dysentery, all hygienic practices in the US not done in other countries are aimed at preventing dysentery?

Furthermore, as stated, European countries often don't have the same health regulations as the US. And, contrary to popular opinion, Europe is full of western countries.

Again, Dysentery is mostly caused by amoebas, and a bacteria called shigella. Shigella is naturally found in humans and apes and you contract it by drinking water with human feces in it. (Which is why when you're in an asian or african country you shouldn't be drinking tap water).

That's completely different then unpasteurized milk, or food that's been left out in the heat.

Furthermore, if you google what I said you'll get all kinds of links on the first page. Like link 1:

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com...

Your immune system is sort of like a muscle. In order for it to be healthy and functioning properly you need to work it out. So, if you never introduce foreign bacteria that need to be killed, your immune system will weaken, and the likelihood that it will get bored and attack itself (also known as allergies) increase. This doesn't just include bacteria; societies where people are more likely to be exposed to parasites like worms tend to have a very low or zero incidence of gastrointestinal diseases like irritiable bowel syndrome, causing some to theorize that human beings need quite a bit of dirt in their diet. In fact, some vitamins (like B vitamins) can't be synthesized by humans but instead need to be ingested from bacteria in soil (e.g. dirt), or the flesh of animals that ate dirt.

(My ex girlfriend was a PhD Microbiology and this is what she considered good dinner conversation (which will perhaps tell you why she is also my ex). I don't know any of the papers she read, but if you are in need of a citation, google is your friend)

My favorite story about the differences in hygiene standards in Europe compared to America.

Health inspectors walk into a famous French restaurant in NYC. 3 Michelin stars, celebrity chef. Cat crosses path.

Inspectors: Sir, do you realize there's a cat in your restaurant? This is not allowed
Owner: Of course there's a cat in the restaurant, if I can't have him here how would you suggest I handle the rats?

Inspectors close restaurant. Exeunt

The funny thing is, living in Europe, and then living in Asia I can tell you most of the world does not have the same very very high standards of the US. And, surprisingly, people do not die from eating raw milk products, or from eating cheeses and meats that have been allowed to sit out in the heat all day, or from any of the many other sins an American health inspector will make you repent for.

Theo De Raadt is the king of tinfoil hats, and behind OpenBSD -- a version of BSD designed to be as secure as possible.

I thought Theo's comments were more geared to the point that malloc() was implemented to be a sort of seat belt. In the event of a crash, if you're wearing your seat belt, you might still get killed, but you have a better chance of living. Same thing with malloc(). Sure maybe it wouldn't have helped, maybe even if there were good regression tests out there someone would also have missed it, but we'll never know if someone would have caught it, and in something that is definitely going to be a target for the black hat crowd, you should have some sort of security mindedness.

Theo is normally a bit of a wonk sometimes but on this issue, he's spot on.

LOL. I expect you're in the spot I was 3-4 years ago....

You know I used to be like you. For YEARS I wondered why in the world anyone would want a smart phone with these app thingies. Friends got the first iphones, the first android phones, etc., and I wondered why.

At some point, I broke down and bought one just because every shiny new phone that wasn't a "grandfather phone" with giant buttons for the visually impaired was smart to some extent.

Now I couldn't live without one. And if my iPhone breaks, I'm at the apple store the next day getting it fixed.

Oblig xkcd:

http://xkcd.com/558/

You are very lucky or perhaps do not have any hobbies? ;)

While I tend not to spend money on apps, every once in a while I come across an app that makes my life much easier, and is well worth the money (even if it's $20+)

Off the top of my head:

Amateur Photography: I bought an app that completely manages model releases. I enter the models details, select the country and language of the contract (I live in Europe so this is actually a big thing for me when I might be in Italy and decide to shoot a model for fun). The model release is available immediately to read, and the model can sign it digitally. A PDF gets archived on the cloud and also sent to the model and my email. App cost $20+ and was worth every penny

Cigars: I love a good cigar now and then. As anyone else into the hobby can tell you, part of the fun is storing and aging your own (much like fine wine). App cost a few bucks but lets me view my cigar collection instantly.

Career: Often I'll need a calculator with more than just an add / subtract function. I spent a few bucks on a calculator app that makes my life much easier. Yes I saw free ones out there but the $5 I spent is worth much less than all the time I save having an easy to use calculator app handy

That's just off the top of my head. If an app makes my life significantly easier, even if it's $20 it may be worth it for me. However i don't find such useful apps often (maybe every few months I'll buy a new app) and each time I do acquire another app I become less likely to buy another one. With my first iPhone, the first day I downloaded dozens of apps (most if not all free). But after reaching some critical mass I no longer felt the need to keep buying apps..

"Weeds in a garden...and not the kind you smoke"

That's a good way of describing asses who take a funny post literally and get their panties in a bunch

Notepad++ shouldn't be the killer app you can't leave windows for. Decades ago vi and emacs were the original Notepad++. Hell, I even remember in comp sci class many years ago we wrote our own text editors because it was sufficiently complicated for a project but easy enough that we could do it over a period of a few weeks, and some students naturally added some bells and whistles you wouldn't find in notepad. (Ahhh, memories. Now get off my lawn)

If you get this grumpy every time someone utters a sarcastic comment on slashdot, you must be a very angry person.

My macbook is quite mobile.