Not all true, Apple does let you re-download almost all music, book and movie files at any time now. There are a few music items from pre 2007 that aren't available, and all WarnerBrothers movies are not accessible either.

So, you don't have to use the cloud storage at all - that's only for music you brought in from CD (which you physically own anyway).

Most of the classic books(free ones, not penguin reprints) come with no DRM on iTunes, and the same with all music. Movies do have DRM, but that can be worked around.

Seriously, the most helpful thing to do is... NOTHING. If they're following you then it's to confirm their own suspicions, so if you flip out you'll be arrested ASAP. If you start cashing out your bank account then you are confirming their suspicions.

As long as they aren't approaching you then don't play the games. Play it safe and keep an eye out for situations which may call attention or suspicion.

If you're to be arrested they won't follow you - they'll just arrest you on the spot unless you've become part of a long-term investigation. If you're part of a long term investigation then you can get a lawyer and offer full cooperation. It may be that a family member of coworker is under investigation and you can set the record straight for yourself.

Otherwise if everything goes smoothly then wait a week and write it down on paper and have it notarized with a lawyer present some time later. Or record a video and mail it to your parents/siblings. That way if you're pulled into a court case at a later date you are prepared and already have a lawyer.

In short, Don't play games and don't go hollywood, unless you are reasonably suspicious that your life is threatened. In that case, get to safety and call a government agency that you can reasonably trust.

I know a lot of military people, and such talk is fairly common in private conversations. Certainly it's out of line in polite conversation - but these guys and ladies are trained for battle and live in a warrior class. Even officers are apt to cringe-worthy comments on the brass.

So yeah, maybe it's worth a checkup and such, but everyone has an opinion. Marines have strong opinions.

Really? Citations? The only similar large-scale experiment I know of was the Oxford JET which only produced 65% of it's input power.

AKAIK - nowhere at any time has ANY scientist shown ANY meaningful energy return on hot fusion research. ITER is the biggest failure of ideas I've ever seen.

Seriously, that money could be spent on beer and pizza.

Oil will be gone far sooner than expected - the strategic national stockpile or beer and pizza is not enough to sustain an energy-free economy. Beer and pizza won't just be for Sunday football No, we're going to need all those calories once the economy swings back to human power!

Hm, that's possible, but I haven't seen a filesystem do that yet using dd without skip. Were you using JFS or reiserFS for that? You could try adjusting the bs size so that it's non-even (say bs=4095) and that would likely eliminate holes except for every 4096 blocks (since holes are always marked per block)

Just to finish this off, dd a large zero file (dd if=/dev/zero of=trash bs=65536) and let it run until the drive is full. Delete the file. This wipes most all unused sectors on the drive preventing recovery of all deleted files.

Maybe it's because the UTexas university endowment is just as big as Harvard's? So there's lots of good science in Texas, only you don't have to work with a**holes who think they're better than everyone else because they have money.

At least that's the general physics opinion I've heard from a few friends that did the ivy league route. Apparently it has improved in the past decade or so.

A few problems with your argument..

First, BILLS WON'T GO DOWN. Sorry, but according to my own insurance company (BCBS), and the government's own projections(GAO) the bills will increase 6-8% every year. The "collapse" of healthcare in unavoidable unless the fed's nationalize it (UK), regulate it (Japan) or tax the hell out of citizens (France).

http://www.progressnownm.org/blog/2012/05/health-insurance-rate-hike-on-poor-rural-nm-go-into-effect-while-insurer-hoards-billions-in-profits.html

Secondly, the AHA does not lower the cost of providing care - it hugely increases the number of billing codes (simple laceration instead of chicken strike, check peck, accident while playing a brass instrument, etc) and creates more paperwork. It does nothing to curb the HIGHEST GROWING COST in medical care - which is administration! Highest in the world I might add.

Huge administrative costs.
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/21/why-does-us-health-care-cost-so-much-part-ii-indefensible-administrative-costs/

GAO reports premium increases related to ACA:
http://www.gao.gov/assets/330/322337.html

The government already knows how to run a good healthcare system - the VA. It used to be awful 30 years ago, but now it is a well run system. They also run medicare/medicaid which has always been terrible. They choose a medicare system over a VA system? That makes no sense...

If they wanted to use the interstate commerce clause, they could have easily regulated the COST of healthcare ala Japan. They can regulate the price of grain, how is that different from bandaids? Japan regulates every procedure just like a state PUC regulates the price of electricity. The PUC is politically responsible, and the state can be held responsible by the voters for high costs. Under Obamacare there is little political responsibility or accountability for healthcare cost. Only the ability to limit increases to 10%.. How is this responsible? At 10% rates can double every 10 years! Plainly, you can't vote for a cheaper rate EVER, only lower increases.

Honestly - this is political lobbying turning public insurance into a PROFIT. I predict that 15 million middle class families will DROP insurance and pay the tax, while 30 million lower-class families will gain insurance so relatively expensive - that when necessary - won't cover squat when they need it most.

Duke on the "quality" of lower-class insurance.
http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/faculty_scholarship/2371/

It will do nothing to curb the number of bankruptcies caused by medical bills - which is the greatest cause of bankruptcy. In fact, by requiring insurance, it may cause even more bankruptcies. Following the model in Massachusetts, bankruptcies did increase, even after controlling for economic and market fluctuations.

http://healthcarecompact.org/blog/2012-04-02/lessons-massachusetts-bankruptcy

So tell me again, HOW, HOW is this going to help anybody? How is this not PROFITEERING on the public?

I've read every page of the bill, I've talked to insurance agents and doctors. I've written my congressmen. THIS IS NOT A SOCIAL GOOD. I don't care if you're liberal of conservative - unless you own a hospital, drug company, or collection agency this bill is utter profiteering.

Nobody will every buy it. Except for government, fingerprint security is largely dead dead dead.

First off, fingerprints can be replicated. Secondly, these types of optical systems have a (relatively) high failure rate (dust, smudges, adverse lighting conditions, etc). Next, they don't work with anyone under the age of 18 with reliability (the ridges and such vary considerably in size). Lastly - it freaks out the customers.

Anyone that thinks fingerprint security is going to succeed in the market is delusional at best. Been there, spent millions, done that. No matter how good the system is or how safe the fingerprints are it just isn't going to be good enough for anything other than a door lock.

England and Wales has 10,182 gun crimes a year (2008, but still), and that's with a blanket ban on gun ownership.
  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1576406/28-gun-crimes-committed-in-UK-every-day.html

Norway has a high percentage of gun ownership (1.9M guns, population of 4.9M) - so it's not THAT restrictive.

I would say it's just a cultural difference between the nordic countries and the western european/UK models. Certainly our northern snow states have lower gun crime rates (though knives and other weapons rates are higher for states with restricted laws).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_States_by_state

Hawaii has restrictive gun laws and does indeed have fewer gun-related deaths, but again 80% of homicide is using knives or other weapons.

If you live in a warmer climate you get more murders. If you restrict gun laws, you do lower murder rates some, but murders tend to be committed with other weapons instead. So in short - if someone wants to kill you, they will use whatever is most convenient.

I concur - I saw Pirates of the Caribbean on a 120Hz display with interframe processing and was absolutely stunned but how real it looks. It looks like reality - which means a bunch of actors standing on a boat.

That said I think a lot of action movies would gain a real visual edge with higher FPS. Unfortunately I don't The Hobbit will be one of them.

I guess they've never heard of George Takei... he tips The Facebook everyday.

Fair enough, but concerning BT Cotton in India, the usage of pesticide overall has stayed fairly steady, again http://ppqs.gov.in/IpmPesticides.htm . The growth trend of Indian cotton planting was already started a few years before BT Cotton, so it's impossible to say whether non-GE crops with traditional pesticide would have been just as successful. I however think that it would have been just as successful - given the higher prices that BT cotton commands, and the small difference in pesticide usage required in the long term.

I stand corrected on Huber and Séralini - however Huber's 2005 study on Mn soil depravation still stands as far as I know.

I must say that GMO crops have been successful and very safe. Certainly it has fed a generation of people and besides a small percentage of allergins it has shown itself to be a highly viable crop. I still say however that it is perilous to develop into a mono-crop culture - even at the expense of a small yield difference it would be far safer to sustain a multitude of crop species.

I can't agree with you on Monsanto however - I still say that they have a history of societal and environmental abuse which will takes years to overcome in my mind. The farmers I know have serious questions on the long-term viability of GE crops considering the retreat and growth of pesticide usage. Only time will tell.

Agribusiness should still encourage a variety and breadth of growing, cultivation, species and scientific inquiry. We can't depend on a handful of companies to always get it right. Monsanto may be the best or worst company in the world - but disasters are inevitable.

Thanks for the discussion, I have learned much!

I'd like to also add that GMO technology isn't the only game in town. In the near future robotic and smarter technological cultivation may be far cheaper, effective and safe than furthering the genetic war on weeds and pests. One of my original hesitations of some GMO technologies has been the unintended consequences which may reduce our ability to produce the food necessary for future generations.

Lastly I stand by my statement that Monsanto is not a good corporate citizen. While I think they have made valuable contributions - they have also shown a clear history of intent to monopolize markets, to profit at the expense of ethics and safety, and to manipulate the proper oversight and standards process which protect consumers.

More on this here:
http://corporatecrime.wordpress.com/2009/10/17/monsanto-lies-again-and-again-and-again/