"Marijuana provides more pain relief for men than women" does not mean "..more pain relief for men than for women"; it means "more pain relief for men than women do".

The WSJ page one headline is “Trump Urges Russia To Wade Into Race”. The lead sentence says Trump “invited Russia on Wednesday to Unearth some of Hilary Clinton’s missing emails from her time as Secretary of State, drawing sharp criticism that he was urging a foreign power to spy on the U.S.”

Now this is profoundly silly; we spy on them and they spy on us. Both countries treat spying as a crime when someone else is doing it and a necessary when they are doing it.

But what did Trump actually say? The WSJ uses a sophisticated way of hiding the actual quote; they put half of it at the end of page A1 and the rest after the jump on page A8. The aim of this traditional and widespread ploy is to make it unlikely that the reader will read the jump and be able to get the whole sentence. It is a surprisingly effective trick. The full Trump Twitter quote is buried in the following WSJ sentence: “Russia- if you are listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Mr. Trump told reporters at (Now the Jump to Page A8) his resort near Miami. “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press”.

Upps! So Trump is simply noting the obvious. The Clinton server was probably hacked by multiple parties- the Russians, some Romanian kids and probably others. These parties have the missing 30,000 Clinton “Personal” emails which her attorneys say they would love to turn over to the Court for review but they can’t because they erased them from her computer after deeming them as “Private” (without actually reading the emails- they just looked at the subject line). Trump is calling their bluff. “Fine if you can’t find them I’m sure the Russians can give us a copy”. Then he takes a slam at the press which loves to call the dumps “dangerous leaks” but then proceeds to publish the texts to boost circulation.

The NYT gave the full quote on P1 under the headline “Trump Challenges Russia To Find Clinton’s Emails” with a sub-head “Urges Moscow to Spy on His Rival Amid Hacking of Democratic Committee”. Sorry guys, wrong verb tense. He isn’t encouraging them to spy (neither Russia nor the U.S. neads any encouragement). The spying was done months- maybe years- ago because all the emails were in an insecure server in the Clinton’s New York home. If there is anything incriminating in them, so be it. We Americans have a right to see them.

The federal government's position is "There is nothing we can do about it" even though most of the calls- if you play along- switch you to an America-based phone salesman working on commission. Almost all these folks work and live in Palm Beach County, FL, where boiler room phone scams are the biggest private employer (30,000 people the last time I heard). This has been going on for 30-40 years and started with timeshare and commodities options. The companies use standard credit card merchant accounts the government can quickly find and shut down. The local phone systems can be easily wiretapped. For the few big-wigs in India who are involved ("Hello, my name is Bobby") a few secret international arrest warrants that snag them on vacation in Europe will suffice. This is a huge illegal business, easily shut down. Why it isn't is a bit of a mystery to me.

So here is the thought experiment: Imagine if you picked up the phone tomorrow morning and heard that cheery female voice hidden behind two layers of Skype say "Hi, I'm from the Should We Legalize Presidential Assassinations? Project and we're doing a survey to gauge public support for Presidential assassinations and to see if you would like to make a small contribution to our campaign. To continue press one" . Note that "Presidential assassinations" can mean either assignations authorized by "A President"- (of what isn't specified) or assassinations aimed at a President. A bit ambiguous, but heck, no harm intended.

Exactly how many minutes do you think it will it take before the FBI gets a report, hits the "trace" button, finds the location and comes through the splintered doorway with guns drawn to take away everyone involved? Needless to say, no bail, multiple federal conspiracy charges each worth 20 years in jail on the way. My guess is 30 minutes unless the FBI decides to trace every cellphone call the perps have made in the past 10 years to see if anyone important is involved. Then it may take a few days. The claim that these operations can't be shut down is sheer silliness.

If Trump ever gets up in a debate with Hilary and said "I'll end these calls in the first 90 days of my Presidency" he'd be elected in a landslide. Hilary could do the same but she never does anything spontaneous.

Iowa farmers: Please ask the state to send all property tax bills for John Deere tractors to the "owner" (John Deere) instead of the farmer. Ask for all the state sales tax money back since there was no sale. Ask JD for the liability insurance policy number for all the tractors since they apparently own them. The possibilities are endless

Bad comparison. Try: "Three times more deadly for men than for women",

Literally "Obesity is three times as deadly for men than women" lends itself to the meaning "obesity kills three times as many men as are killed by women", which may be true. Or is it the obesity in women that is killing the men when the women roll over in bed at night? Is this like Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)?.

I can see it now in the DSM-6 or 7; a new reason for the rise in the male death rate. "Sleeping Male Asphyxiating Syndrome- Help!" (SMASH).

Beautiful sunrise out here on the porch in Rhode Island. I've either have had too much or too little coffee... or maybe as much coffee than I can take.

The big five (Apple, etc) hold roughly 500 billion overseas, not quite Chines government numbers (2,000-4,000 billion) but still significant. How is it invested? Some of the choices are T Bills, TIPS, Euro Bonds, gold and commodities. The companies may be investing the money in ways that meet a number of U.S. government goals (keeping interest rates low, stabilizing markets, supporting weak governments). If so there is more to this story than the usual conflicting "Make them pay taxes" versus "Let them bring it home at a new, low tax rate".

If anyone has any information on how the cash horde is deployed, please post it.

How did a "Scientists say" NYT diet article wind up on Slashdot? Just because the NYT is turning into the National Inquirer doesn't mean Slashdot should.

This article defies the laws of physics; it is bogus science. If you take in X calories and expend X + 1 calories you lose weight . If you expend X - 1 calories you gain weight. If set points were really running the show then in 1945 we would have busted down the gates at Dachau and the Japanese POW camps and found a fair number of fat people. We didn't. Calories in; calories out.

Set points are real and self control is a bitch. Your body is yelling at you "I want more food". Don't feed the body more than it needs, get some exercise and you will lose weight and eventually the body will adjust- it will shut up and stop yelling. The laws of physics are not related to the human urge to have a another bag of jellybeans before bedtime. Slashdot should stick to technology and science.

Gambling at Ricks? I had no idea.

So what was an open secret to every diesel mechanic in the U.S. and Europe, that the diesels didn't ever pass the emissions tests in the real world, didn't get noticed by anyone in a position of power in Europe or anyone in the the U.S. Department of Transportation, any state DOT, anyone in the general press or anyone in the specialized automotive press. Do we really believe that? Or are we witnessing a breakdown in both government and press accountability?

Part of the problem is bad regs (under certain heavy load conditions diesels really can never meet the requirements). But that is no excuse for allowing VW and the others to get a total "pass" on all pollution control regs in Europe. This is a totally open secret, just like the computer tweaking all manufacturers use so they can claim the magic "40 MPG!". The shift point programmed in make the car burp and barely accelerate so AFTER the certification runs the manufactures issue "software updates" that drop the mileage a bit but make the cars run properly. Now this is an open secret. It is probably illegal (fair trade laws, EPA regs, etc).

I'd like to propose an experiment. There is clearly an important story here. I'll bet that many of the readers here are members of the press or government employees; they are honorable people who know a lot. They tried to report this stuff and were rebuffed. They are rightfully afraid to send the info to Slashdot. In modern America you will be punished or fired for publishing documents that show what is going on so, regretfully, you must learn to think and act like a Soviet or Chinese dissident. This is the only way to publish the often embarrassing truth and still stay under the radar.. ,

The key is a Gmail/hotmail account that is not traceable One way is get a throw-away computer and use wifi at coffee shops. NEVER use the computer for any other purpose except browsing and spreading the word and NEVER leave the battery in while not using the computer. All email is traceable. A second way is use the throwaway computer and a "borrowed" untraceable email address- and that means if you have ever cell-phoned or emailed the person with the account you are traceable. I'd suggest that you use your brother-in-law's or grandma's name to open a gmail account using their computer (with their permission) and report what you know to Slashdot.

And remember on the "how to get the documents" side, if you open, download or copy documents using your work credentials they will trace the leak back.

So folks, if you are an insider, give it some thought. Find a way to get a copy of the documents that matter. Photograph them with a throwaway camera (pay cash at Walmart). Load them on a "safe" computer at the coffeeshop and drop them as a comment here under 'anon coward"- you need to stay "anon" but it is about time you stopped acting like cowards.

Eliminate payroll direct deposits for all TSA and DOT employees, including the Sec. of Transportation. Hand the checks to the security screeners at one of the Reagan Airport security lines. If an employee want to be paid he or she just has to get in line every two weeks, wait the usual 45 minutes and show an ID to get the paycheck.

Then extend the system to Congressmen, Senators and Supreme Court Justices, all of whom get to use a special parking lot for free at Reagan and to use a "courtesy" checkin system- quite private with no lines, no xrays, no shoe removal and best of all, no waiting. If this sounds vaguely like the old Soviet system... can't help that.

High-tech companies like Microsoft depend on employees being able to say proudly "I work at Microsoft". The moment that saying that leads to people screaming at them over the update problem the Microsofties start hiding who they work for and the best ones, the ones with choices, start looking for an employer they can admit to working for. Even better at conventions refuse to let them into conversations- shun them. And don't accept "But that's not my division" as an excuse.

Lots of BS here- everybody has an opinion about the opinion of everybody else.

Where is the text of the hacked documents so I can look at them and make an informed opinion.

Any ideas?

Dave Miller

Two comments:

First, Uber spent money to force an election but the city must fund the election, one with only one subject on the ballot, the Uber-fingerprinting issue. The total cost to the city will be hundereds of thousands of dollars. Uber got the signatures to put it on the ballot by having the paid signature-gatherers lie- "The city of Austin is forcing Uber to close down; do you want to stop this?". The mayor tried to come up with a face-saving compromise; Uber said "no". I'll vote against Uber. And remember, there is an alternative start-up in the wings that will accept fingerprinting. I'll bet Uber backs down at the last minute to avoid allowing a new competitor to start us.

Many of the Uber drivers are not legal (immigrants without papers, student visas that don't allow work, people with suspended licences using other people's names, etc) and Uber doesn't want this sort of thing stopped.

This is criminal activity. If the federal government wanted to stop this they CAN trace a call, follow it back to the U.S. call center or credit card billing number. How? Find 100 people willing to have a tap on the phone; tell them to agree to anything and pay with a government credit card they are given; trace the credit card info and land on the U.S. part of the operation HARD using the conspiracy laws.

If you don't think they have the ability to do that do the following though experiment: How fast would it take for the police to arrive at your door if the robo call was saying "I think we should bomb the White House with confetti using toy drones. Would you like to buy one set up to use? If so, press one.

If any of the people running for President made it a campaign promise to shut these people down I'd vote for him or her at the March 1st Texas primary

I've decided to test what I’m fairly sure is the semi-automatic or automatic Slashdot system for identifying and dealing with vulgar and politically incorrect comments. So, with all due respect to those who don't like vulgarity and sexual comments:

1) Am I allowed to say "nigger dick" on Slashdot?
2) What about "I love nigger dick"?
3) Finally what about "I don't like nigger dick'?

If the term "nigger dick" is forbidden, what about "nigger"?, what about "dick"? What about “Negro dick” or Afro-American penis”? Is there any reason why Slashdot should not make public the list of forbidden words or subjects?

One insidious aspect of modern censorship is the secrecy. Traditional western censorship, such as that practiced in the 19th century Catholic and Victorian traditions, created a public record of what was forbidden so that the individual could know what the limits were and the society as a whole could argue about the process and maybe even try to justify or ridicule the results. The last gasp of that wholly honorable and intellectually justifiable system was the federally mandated "seven dirty words" you could not say on broadcast TV, a list ridiculed by Lenny Bruce. In retrospect the seven dirty words system was an attempt to act above-board, the way democracies are supposed to do things.

  The alternative to publicly acknowledged censorship is not no censorship; it is "Night and Fog" censorship, which we associate with the inquisition and the modern fascist and communist states. This form of censorship in essence says "We will not tell you what is allowed or forbidden. But if you cross the line you will find out and be harshly punished. There are no rules we must show you, there are only the results which you will see".

So in an attempt to make censorship decisions a matter of public discussion I put forward for the Slashdot censors and readership the "nigger dick" question. If this post is simply rejected I'll use that truly silly modern invention "the N word" to let the Slashdot community know what's up. If the offending words are simply covered up I'll congratulate Slashdot because publicly announced censorship is far preferable to "We don't censor you. But we strongly encourage you to learn to censor yourself". The capitalization or lack thereof is intentional. And as to my personal position on nigger dick... well we all have a right top our own opinions.

I live in an Austin, TX condo and hear the Echo backpack leafblowers every Monday. At 10 feet I measured one at 98 db. The operators are all illegals, 18-20 year-old kids from the hills of Michoacan in Mexico. None of them are given ear protectors by the foodchain of subcontractors-of-subcontractors who are used to provide legal cover for the condo associations (including mine) who hire illegals because they are cheap, obedient and unlikely to complain. Most will be half-deaf at 30. But nobody here cares. No American would put up with the working conditions or they would call OSHA.

Don't kid yourself; illegal immigration and leafblowers are connected. This is both a first and third world problem; a first world problem for the students who would have the jobs and be earning $15/hr if the illegals were not here and a problem for the kids from Mexico who get $7.50/hr and who will go deaf. Talk about a conspiracy of silence...

The situation pisses me off for both reasons.