Another good way to dissuade coworkers from hanging around is to pull out a camera. It's the shotgun of office politics ~ there's no mistaking the sounds of the lens covers coming off, or the click of the shutter. Point'n'shoots, with that whirrr-whir as it extends the lens, also gets people's attention. Just some exposed glass has been enough to clear some of my coworkers out of the 4-plex, from time to time. Every now and then I even turn the camera on and get some random pictures. 55-200 lens get REALLY CLOSE UP from 10'.

SSC never went active, whereas these data centers went live, were monitored, and deemed to be excess infrastructure that didn't help the deficit. Something similar happened around here, with the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF). Could've been pumping out medical isotopes, but noooo, we needed to shut that thing down.

That's pretty stupid, overall. He should've done his research before doing some experiments, and the government shouldn't've gone in with a vengeance. As far as silly ways to get arrested, though, it's sillier than getting arrested for making moonshine in the US. http://www.burningstill.com/?q=node/57

I keep saying that "I don't get paid to trust people", here at work ~ most of my job is to find bugs and squash them, whether in the code or in the model files. Some days it's the model, some days it's the software, some days it's the user. Then I talked to my neighbor and learned about his soon-to-be-ex wife problems. That simply reinforced the point that I don't get paid to trust people. Then RSA, Sony, and everyone else got hacked. That really reinforced the point. So hey, don't trust people. Trust the facts instead.

I want to observe that 'their models suggest that the planet is habitable'. Don't get all excited until their models are validated, verified, and well-tested. Until then, it could indeed turn out to just be that trick of curved space-time that brought in a few funny photons in the right place.

...because oh so much evolution occurs over the course of ten thousand years. There have been much heavier influences on human development, such as agriculture, metalworking, medicine, and similar technological discoveries that have either overshadowed or also influenced our development. If anything, there's been too much noise in our systems to observe any small changes in the last 500 generations.

Still waiting for either an engineering or science field to be mentioned.

The problem is that you have to be defined as a "data access provider" to have the protections of a data access provider. Netting that definition requires you to play by whatever the written rules are, both in the law books and within your contract with your ISP. It's not so much a question of if I think I should be held responsible if someone else is speeding in my car, it's an issue of how the laws are written and how my insurance policy is written. Lawyers have this funny stance that "it's not real until it's in writing" ... similarly, you'll be held responsible for what you've presumably read and signed your name to in agreement.

Yeah, sure, socially responsible thing to do. I'm not putting down $60/month and minding a wireless router just so that the neighbors can get free wireless Internet access on my dime, TYVM. Last time I checked, there were also a few clauses that basically say that you may not pretend to be an ISP, resell bandwidth, or sublet bandwidth, should you be a Verizon/Charter/Clearwire/whoever Internet subscriber. That reads to me that if you do try to use a 'all the protections of an ISP' claim, your ISP will say 'no, WE'RE the ISP' and cut you off. Nice try EFF, but it's not going to fly.

Awful lot of meat in your post. Can't say much during a lunch-break post, but I'll observe that there are a few billion dollars in the USG's ARRA grants, aimed at increasing T+D energy efficiency and improving renewable energy integration. There's a remarkable degree of value in 'making something'. I've made 'fantasy stock' decisions based on whether or not a given company had a tangible product, and I wish I had a bit of money to throw at those decisions at times. Such decisions directly chase the idea of strategic value in certain industries, mainly in energy and material security. See last quarter's rare earth metal 'panic', and speculate on what airlines are doing in the oil markets to cover their fuel supplies. See the massive US export of 'high technology', especially arms sales (tanks, jets, radar, and other military-sized toys ~ I love the DOD's research budgets). Heck, see farm subsidies. The curious problem with capitalism is that it relies on there being disparity between the value of someone's work and the price they're willing to be paid for it. Eventually all the money winds up in the hands of the few who are paying for the work of many others', with only an increased disparity from the top to the bottom. If the 'top' isn't spending that money, preferably in a fashion that does not net returns, Bad Things happen to capitalism.

Slashdot -- Mad Libs edition! BEST. APRIL FIRST. EVER. Can we keep this after today as a 'special section', to parallel Idle?

At the risk of feeding the trolls,
"Dark fiber". VPN tunnels. Modems. There are still a lot of ways data gets from point A to B without going through the normal routing rules, so near as I can tell, we already have more than one internet.

Dust storms?

Disclaimer, I'm in the USA, and they're still counting the votes in my state for some of the races.

I'm oddly okay with movie theatres doing this. It's their private property, and it's probably legal so long as they have signs up or add it in the fine print n the ticket. I'm not going to investigate as much.

I will vote with my dollars and skip the movie theatres, though. I'm quite happy to stay at home with my Netflix account, air-popper, 12-pack of soda, and 'movie theatre candy box' from WinCo. They can keep their cameras and blockbuster releases, so long as Hollywood keeps employing actors and Netflix keeps streaming movies.

If they put cameras on my television or XBox, on the other hand...

Himself. Motorcycles have a lot of speed, high acceleration and maneuverability, little mass, and very little between the rider and the road. If he'd met another vehicle at 127mph, the other vehicle would be operable with a dent, and this video would've ended with road pizza.

Stupid driving? Extremely. Dangerous to those around him? Not really.

Here in my state, what the cop did would be called 'threatening with a deadly weapon'.