Mod points to that man

Pigs flying
Rocking horse shit
Politicians keeping election promises

Going after terrorists - yes (9/11 terrorists or any others), but didn't the 9/11 ones mostly come from Saudi Arabia?

Libya's definitely for oil - Britain would have to be supporting her commonwealth member Zimbabwe if she really did these things for compassionate reasons (for example), but the Iraqi oil supply was divided up between non Iraqi oil companies in discussions and agreements between European countries and America months before the invasion - not something that adds to the argument that invading was for some bits of equipment that may at some stage have been parts of WMDs or simple regime change (an admission by Tony Blair in the Chilcot enquiry).

Republicans, Democrats, Bush, Obama - even if there was once a noticeable difference it seems that now they're picking an the tiniest detail to disagree to make it seem as thought there's a difference between them

Have you read any of the recently released files or even summaries of them? Your statement that "most of these guys are dangerous" suggests not. The idea that they have "lots of info and connections" also sounds misled - why are you thinking that a random person from the Middle East who was picked up for wearing a particular watch would necessarily have means, motive and opportunity to inflict harm or know people who do? (That's just an example of how bad the reasons for selecting a lot of the individuals were - I know there are others) I'm not saying that keeping innocent people interred and interrogated for years without trial won't make them harbour a few grudges, but the "gitmo imprisonment stuff", while possibly done for good reasons, was carried out with an ineptitude and lack of forethought that would make an impulsive puppy ashamed. Now that there are about a third of the prisoners there that there were when it was at its fullest (the rest have been mostly relocated to the Middle East, Europe and America, so can you all stop this crap about no-one being willing to take them?) the remainder might be the ones most likely to be dangerous, but even they don't seem to (mostly) be looking at being tried for whatever makes them "dangerous" (media manipulated imagination, fortunately, doesn't hold any weight in a trial although it seems to be holding sway over a majority of the population and congress). Tell me what each of the "dangerous" prisoners did and I'll take you seriously, but I can always watch Fox news if I'd rather have sensation over fact

Plus, how much will it cost to maintain / replace parts against cost of maintaining Fukushima and providing the plutonium (or whatever was used there)?

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Would a rose by any other name not smell as sweet? Who cares what the poster says their job title is - they're not trying to use it to get your credit card number or bank details. If it's about polishing a resume - haven't we all done that? If it's a problem, surely that's for the next employer (or the poster if it results in being laughed out of interviews), not /.

I agree, but learn and practise in a quiet place first

Haven't tried prayer but agree with meditation and reading. Add playing (and practising) a musical instrument. Basically anything that requires attention to be focussed for a prolonged (40 minutes to an hour) period but that the mind might naturally wander away from, so you have to practise returning your focus to the relevant subject all the time. Just like any kind of exercise, it gets easier the more you do it. If focus is a real problem or you want to become a focus ninja, reduce or cut out the mind wandering distractions and take time paying attention to whatever you're doing (really take in the smell and feel of what you're cooking rather than thinking of what's on television next, that sort of thing). I bet you'll notice things you hadn't seen before. I bet you'll also find it easier to have all of your attention on any particular task AND be able to switch it all to another task just as quickly as you already do, making you a better multitasker than if you multitask by only having part of your attention on a few different things.

Tools like the vacuum cleaner and washing machine were supposed to give us all more leisure time - it looks like we're not very good at using it well - yet. There would be some who would want to be creative with their robot and others who just want to make the most money possible with theirs (maybe a form of creativity? I don't think so, but others might). With sufficient technology, here's a possibility of what could be done (not my work): http://www.marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm

The past decade has been relatively safe for flying: http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2010/01/nate_silver_on.html and the scanners won't necessarily improve the security we already have: http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2010/01/german_tv_on_th.html. It's a bit of security theatre that at best is inconvenient and at worst is highly intrusive while probably making very little difference to the safety of passengers or those on the ground.

Nakedness will be on a "high pedestal" as long as it is culturally accepted or expected that we wear clothes for most activities (like going outdoors, even if this is minimal clothing in the summer). We'd need to start by changing the law on how acceptable public nudity is before we can hope to change people's views on their own and others' nakedness. This would have to be followed by a change in a lot of people's perception that nakedness is a sexual thing - an event (http://news.scotsman.com/nakedrambler/Naked-Rambler-locked-up-.3689718.jp) involving someone who doesn't want to wear clothes and was repeatedly arrested because of this demonstrated that many people think that the natural state is in some way threatening (radio phone ins revealed opinions that the guy was someone who we needed to be protected from - for not wearing clothes).

As for me - I think that we ought to have a choice of whether to wear clothes or not - which means a choice of whether to be seen naked (I have curtains on my the windows of my house). I won't be flying from airports with these scanners

If that were the case, I don't see how countries with the death penalty can have many capital crimes, but they seem to have the most. Punishment is only a deterrent for those who think they'll get caught and most people who commit crimes think they'll get away with it. Extremely hard punishment might be a good way to discourage reoffending (my impression is that it isn't such a bad place if you're likely to be hanging out with criminal types anyway), but that would have to be backed up with a very strong "we caught you once, we'll catch you again" message, which seems to be currently lacking

"Under a benevolent master" - do you see much benevolence?

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