I consider you both willful fools. The dissenting information was out there for those who wished to listen to it. The country, including the media and the vast majority of DC politicians were absolutely giddy to go to war and it took nerve and a love for facts to stand against it. A clear view at the time would have shown the Bush Administration was controlling the message with an iron fist. Painting anyone who spoke out as aiding terrorists and un-American. The whole mess spiraled out of contol into a bloody but predictable civil war which led to the great American shame of torture, spying and Gitmo. And yes, you are partially to blame, but you can resolve to stay informed and not to be used again.

I don't know if Twitter could have prevented it. They are often as subject to popular opinion as any other type of media. Who knows if the voices of reason would be heeded or shouted down in the mass hysteria of the times. What we need is to cultivate a healthy and fact based skeptisism of government propaganda and an informed public who is not afraid to speak up against a popular idea.

If I recall, It was precisely this idea which gave gave birth to The Flying Spaghetti Monster as a protest to a similar law in Kansas.
RAmen!

My kids have grown and have kids of their own, so I have a slightly longer view than many posting here. Surprisingly, they all turned out fine. As parents we forget that there's lots of middle ground between 'my way or the highway' and 'do whatever you want.'

In my experience, there are times when it's really important to stand your ground. These are the times when your kid is toe to toe with you and asking 'who is in charge here?' This starts at about two and continues until 18. The trick is recognizing when your authority as a parent is being tested. Those are the times you have to show that you are the parent. You stand tough on the rules, ground them. Take the router or cell phone away.

But most of the time, it does not have to be a power struggle. A 10 pm internet curfew is reasonable, but perhaps on weekends, when her friend was over, they could have been more flexible with the time. As a parent, you actually have very little control over a teenager but they often control themselves if you have allowed them to make reasonable decisions as they grew up.

I tried to give my kids more responsibility for their choices as they got older and I considered 17 to be a pivotal year. By then, they were allowed to make many of their own decisions, and suffer the cosequenses. (Staying up late == a bad day at school). Remember, your job is to raise responsible adults, not perfect children.

My father had classic Asperger symptoms although growing up I didn't have a name for it. He shunned social situations because he always felt uncomfortable and eventually would step on someones' toes. He had a strange set of obsessions and tics. He was also a genius in so many ways I am just now learning to appreciate.

He was quite handsome, but still the classic 'geek', even the early days of geekdom. He was an electrical engineer and a pioneer in military radio and radar. He built the most amazing woodworking projects and practical inventions.

He had a stroke toward the end of his life which changed his personality. He was friendlier and more affectionate. The 'grumpy' side disappeared. But with it went the spark, the curiousity, the gift of deft hands and a creative mind in unison.

I see him in myself in many ways, my love and knack for tech being the most obvious. But although I am not the social clod my father was, I am also not the creative genius he was. His obsessions produced beauty and functionality I cannot even concieve. He was not 'broken', just different and the world is a more interesting place because he was in it.

I wonder if it is related to this breakthrough by MIT last year. They developed an anti-viral drug which also targets RNA and should, theoretically, be effective against all viruses.

I have several websites which have been up for well over a decade and are highly rated. Last year I was laid off my job and for the first time, started putting Google ads on my pages. I'm making a few hundred dollars per month from them. Yes, people do click on ads that interest them. I use only ads which are related to the subject of the page. I try hard not to annoy my visitors, no pop ups, pop unders, no ads in the text, no flashing obnoxiousness. No tracking.

I am embarrassed to admit that I use an adblock myself. I felt hypocritical so I turned it off for awhile. OMG. I had forgotten how bad it could be out there. I certainly don't blame my visitors for using an adlocker. I try not to punish those who don't.

Generally, the webmaster decides where and what type of ads will display. Blaming the advertisers is off base as they make a variety of ad sizes and types available but the webmaster chooses how far he goes with them. Perhaps try writing an email to the webmaster telling them that you find their site too annoying to visit again.

Call me an old fart. I have used Linux for over a decade. I have used dozens of distros and desktops. Blackbox, Fluxbox, Enlightenment, XFCE, KDE, Gnome and yes, Unity. Over the years of experimentation and practice, I figured something out about myself. I always come back to Debian or a derivative and I always come back to Gnome. This combination hits the sweet spot for me and if Ununtu chooses to move in a different direction, I choose to find an alternative.

I don't get why I would want to add layers of cpu eating complexity, just to simulate what I have right now. I see the direction Canonical is moving. Smartphones and tablets may be the wave of the future but this old fart knows what I like on my desktop.

Deb + Gnome = Perfection

...I don't think there's a lot of that kind of activity in that area. If you check the satellite maps you can verify that, wells stand out as bright square pads.

You mean like this? The location is from the USGS Earthquake Page showing the locations of the recent Oklahoma earthquakes. Is that a gas well right next to the quake location (that "bright square pad")? And could those be fault lines in the background?

I stream it on my droid when I'm away from home.

http://cvinetwork.com/

http://wwitv.com/

There are dozens of sites like these. Use with Windows at your own risk.

A 9.0 quake could have been predicted on that type of fault. And is certainly possible in northern California. The San Andreas Fault gets lots of press because it is a clearly visible scar that runs the length of the state. It slips constantly, producing small quakes and occasionally, big ones. The lesser known danger is the Cascadia Fault, the same subduction type fault which is responsible for the recent massive quakes elsewhere in the world.

The Cascadia Subduction Zone runs off the coast from Washington to northern California and was unknown until recently. It doesn't 'slip.' It locks for long periods and then releases with a massive quakes, producing tsunamis equivilent to what has just hit Japan. In fact, the date of the last quake on Cascadia is well known, 12/26/1700, due to the tsunami it produced being well documented in Japan. The videos we are seeing from there are a preview of what will happen in the Pacific Northwest and the clock is ticking.

Thank you. I have been using Linux for 10 years. I love Debian. I give them props every day. But nowadays I use Ubuntu because it makes things easy. Not dumbed down. I wish the Deb folks would stop being so defensive about this.

I always considered the friendly rivalry among distros to be like family. Competitive but still rooting for each other to succeed. We can poke and jab at each other, but let an outsider attack one of us and they attack us all.

Relax, Deb. We know where the Ubuntu goodness comes from. A parent shouldn't be so jealous of their child. Its not healthy.

+1 Insightful