The initial source of the military leaks - Bradley Manning - shows why "Don't Ask Don't Tell" is a sound policy and that Manning should have been dismissed. Not only was he openly protesting homosexual political causes while in the military (and posting about them on Facebook) but he had also assaulted and officer in Iraq. This was clearly not a person who should have had top security clearance. According to the New York Times even past classmates and employers described Manning as erratic:

“He would get upset, slam books on the desk if people wouldn’t listen to him or understand his point of view,” said Chera Moore, who attended elementary and junior high school with him. “He would get really mad, and the teacher would say, ‘O.K., Bradley, get out.’ ...He was hired and quickly fired from a small software company, where his employer, Kord Campbell, recalled him as clean-cut and highly intelligent with an almost innate sense for programming, as well as the personality of a bull in a china shop.

Add to all this the fact that Manning was gender dysphoric (easy to see why from his cruel father and dysfunctional family) and felt he was a woman in a man's body. GID (Gender Identity Disorder) is still an official disorder (but probably soon to be dropped as one due to political pressures)

http://gawker.com/5571388/was-wikileaker-bradley-manning-betrayed-by-his-queer-identity

'Is Alleged Wikileaker Bradley Manning Pre-Transition Transgendered?
http://gawker.com/5568351/is-wikileaker-bradley-manning-pre+transition-transgendered

Aggravating the situation even more is the fact Manning was discussing his problems with bisexual hacker Adrian Lamo - who friends say may have been goading Manning on in order to get info and acquire notoriety for himself.

"Was Wikileaker Bradley Manning Betrayed By His Queer Identity?"
http://gawker.com/5571388/was-wikileaker-bradley-manning-betrayed-by-his-queer-identity

Bradley Manning really should have been removed from the service and certainly not allowed security clearance

People who study a lot and who often use their imaginations (like artists) are often the easiest to hypnotize (and the most susceptible to psychotic illness). One reason is that they get conditioned to focus tightly one one thing to the exclusion of others. Concentration and exclusion are fundamental to a hypnotic state. Another reason people who study a lot can be suggestible is that they are more prone to authority (look for approval from teachers , profs etc). Any good hypnotist knows their greatest asset is an authoritarian manner. Of course people can be intelligent in healthy ways but the people who fall into their intellectualism to the exclusion of other aspects of their psyche are lopsided ( a reason they are often neurotic).

Many people have absorbed warming theories uncritically because some authority (an academic or artist etc) told them it was "settled science" when it wasn't. Experts also offered up congested articles that were scientism more than science, and like art consumers who get bamboozled into accepting dung on a museum floor as art people went along with studies as long as they sounded scientific.

AGW is a perfect illustration of the naked emperor syndrome. Lots and lots of people have insisted the emperor was not naked when in fact he was. We live in an age of junk science where money/fame has more influence on individuals than a desire to know the truth.

Yep - nothing like going out of business to be safe from pirates.

You might even get some missile secrets on the drives. Our secret of course..

"Computer hard drive sold on eBay 'had details of top secret U.S. missile defence system"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1178239/Computer-hard-drive-sold-eBay-details-secret-U-S-missile-defence-system.html

"According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, scientists have discovered the common ancestor of monkeys, apes, and Slashdotters."

Defaming monkeys and apes are we?

Robert Rubin was calling for reform of Glass-Stegall at least as early as 1995. Clinton People wanted the repeal as well and didn't just meander into it.

Monday, May 1 1995

"Rubin calls for modernization through reform of Glass-Steagall Act."

"Robert E. Rubin, secretary of the Treasury, recommended that Congress pass legislation to reform or repeal the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 to modernize the country's financial system. In testimony before the House Committee on Banking and Financial Services, Rubin said Clinton administration proposals, would permit affiliations between banks and other financial services companies, such as securities firms and insurance companies...

Rubin said Glass-Steagall imposed unnecessary costs and made providing financial services less efficient and more costly. He said the act can "conceivably impede safety and soundness by limiting revenue diversification."..

Rubin said bills introduced in the House and the Senate to modernize the financial services system were highly constructive, although somewhat different from the Clinton administration's recommendations, and that a bipartisan effort could yield significant results this year."

http://www.allbusiness.com/government/business-regulations/500983-1.html

Also from 1999 the Times ran an article about relaxed subprime mortgages that might become a problem in the future:

"Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending"

September 30, 1999

"In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders.

The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets -- including the New York metropolitan region -- will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Fannie Mae officials say they hope to make it a nationwide program by next spring.

In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980's.

''From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us,'' said Peter Wallison a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. ''If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry.' "

New mobos have 2 bios chips - or at least ASUS and Gigabyte do

That was "They dressed her horrible"

I know a guy who was president of Fox TV in the 90's. I used to get the impression (listening to him) that the network was always working against itself (they had had something like 6 presidents in a row lose their jobs in brief stints). I recall talking about Jennifer Love Hewitt's failed series that was a spinoff from "Party of Five". When I asked him about show he said "They guessed her horrible. They should have put her in a tube top and forgot about it". Since then whenever I hear the expression "screw up a wet dream" I think of Fox Entertainment.

A prior report out last year also said concerns could overblown. However some kids were more apt to be targeted.

"Study: Fears of Online 'Sexual Predators' Are Greatly Exaggerated"

"Fears that children are at risk to sexual predators on the Internet are greatly exaggerated, according to a study published today in American Psychologist, the journal of the American Psychological Association. Janis Wolak and her collaborators at the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire in Durham conducted the research."

Myth:
Internet predators go after any child.

Fact:

Finding: Usually their targets are adolescent girls or adolescent boys of uncertain sexual orientation, according to Wolak. Youths with histories of sexual abuse, sexual orientation concerns and patterns of off- and online risk-taking are especially at risk

http://www.spicejar.org/asiplease/archives/000669.html

USB 3.0 will be out in another year, and with speeds of 4.8 Gbit/s (600 MB/s) and a new powering system Firewire would have been on its way out anyway.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/10/usb-3-0-in-the-flesh/