That's why we - all over the world - cancel our accounts there. In Europe, you need to write a letter or send a fax, since you cannot delete your profile/account online / by email, but I guess and hope that really hurts them.

Yea I know the "But I do all my shopping there!" arguments... get a clue, there's lots of other online retailers, and if you keep looking (or even leave the house / basement once in a while), you'll probably save a few bucks,too.

hm I use Opera - I right-click on visa.com, mastercard.com, paypal.com and amazon.com and select "Reload every 2 sec." - Why, I really do need to know if their sites are up, of course! The Auto-Reload feature Opera offers helps quite a bit here... .

btw, the French have an excellent site for browsing the cables:

Statelogs helps you browse, comment, rate, now at 1000 of 251.287 cables.

Read them, browse them, don't rely on 2nd hand info or main stream media... .

Facetious!

> I'm not suggesting that poor security is unacceptable

You are suggesting that poor security is acceptable.

> time for individuals to take some responsibility

Yes, but corporations need to take responsibilities, too - and be liable. Additionally, think of Joe Sixpack instead of /. geeks: online banking (and the tools used) need not be fool-proof - since someone only needs to build a better fool - but Joe would expect reasonable dilligence (if he cared, which he doesn't unless things go wrong).

I'm amazed time and time again what you can get away with today, that's all. My bad. Not sure what SOX has to do with that, tho'.

All?!
I mean, seriously, what else can you get away with today?

Ha! How very insightful! (No mod points ATM).

On topic: I have different machines for different tasks - if I can't keep up with what happens on them, so be it. As long as you can decide on what is really important, you'll be fine, even if you "miss" stuff.

That might be the reason why - according to the blog post you didn't read - the first of the "important steps to achieve this goal" is:

1. A decision must be made on what constitutes an Analytical Engine

See rfc3675:

"Periodically there are proposals to mandate the use of a special top level name or an IP address bit to flag "adult" or "unsafe" material or the like. This document explains why this is an ill considered idea from the legal, philosophical, and particularly, the technical points of view."

Check out Dr. Jeff Masters Blog at wunderground.com, especially the "Resources for the BP oil disaster" section at the end of each new blog entry. His My post on what oil might do to a hurricane" entry concludes:

Unfortunately, there is a decent chance that we'll get a real-world opportunity to see what will happen. June tropical storms tend to form in the Gulf of Mexico, and we've been averaging one June storm every two years since 1995. This year, the odds of a June Gulf of Mexico storm are probably a little lower than usual, shear from our lingering El Niño may bring wind shear levels a bit above average. I expect there is a 20% chance that we'll see a June tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico that would interact with the oil spill.

Also, we now have TD1 which might make it to the GOMEX and has tropical storm / hurricane potential; and it's only June.

The deterrent argument is scientifically invalid:

"There is no reliable, scientifically sound evidence that [shows that executions] can exert a deterrent effect.... These flaws and omissions in a body of scientific evidence render it unreliable as a basis for law or policy that generate life-and-death decisions. To accept it uncritically invites errors that have the most severe human costs." (Discussion of recent deterrence studies).

The truly appalling part to me was that the shooters volunteered. They were not appointed to shoot, they wanted to. It's one thing to have laws saying that killing your own people is ok given the "right" crime and discuss how humane or civilized the killing method is. It's quite another thing to have cops volunteer to kill another human being.

And for those saying "RLG wasn't a human being": civilized parts of this planet have agreed that people - no matter if they are good or bad or white or criminal - are people in the first place. And you don't kill people. As a rule. Because life is valuable. Yes, every life. Deal with it.

and using it to track deforestation is neat and all, but a better, more comprehensive source of information is the State of the World's Forests 2009 report. And yes, it has neat and colorful maps, too.

But they are the forest industry, so they must be evil.

Not per se, but the key is sustainability, and despite improvements - as others pointed out, many players in the timber industry don't want to destroy their resources completely - the industry is not acting responsibly:

"But the timber industry's Sustainable Forestry Initiative does not protect forests or deliver credible assurances. The SFI condones environmentally harmful practices including large-scale clearcutting and chemical use, logging of old growth and endangered forests, and replacement of forests by ecologically degraded tree plantations. And there's no guarantee that many products marketed as SFI have any connection to SFI certified forests. Most other forest certification systems also permit destructive logging practices. [...] If you haven't already, please consider adopting an environmentally sound wood and paper policy - and don't buy into the SFI's claims." (emphasis mine)
Forest certification can help ... depending on which certification system you choose!

I know this is slashdot, but the vast majority of posts so far are elaborate arguments about trees in the US, which is completely missing the point. Forest [...]swaths the size of Panama are lost each and every year. Most posts therefore are mere red herrings. IOW, the world / the climate does not care much about Oregon.

There's a lot more to deforestation than that: Fast Facts about Deforestation and Quick Actions to Prevent Deforestation