I work at a private, non-profit college. We don't tell our students what they may say online; our efforts are directed toward known porn/malware sites (often the same thing) and keeping people from using P2P. Yes, of course there are legitimate uses of bittorrent et al, but our problem is one of bandwidth consumption. We can't afford a gigabit pipe from Google or anyone else and we can't have a few students sucking up all the bandwidth that must be shared with everyone.

Saying what you wish to say is one thing, it's well and good and under the right circumstances is protected by the Constitution. What concerns me more personally, is that not one instructor on staff has Conservative leanings; every instructor that has expressed an opinion is very Liberal. Call it "progressive" if you like; it's the same thing.

Maybe it's different at taxpayer-supported institutions; I'd like to hear from others.

Seems like you have a closed mind. You're all-knowledgeable about what people who don't share your beliefs stand for. Are you unique in this world? I sure don't have the ability to get into the minds of people whose views I oppose. Yet somehow you can.

You must be a liberal.

At least there were two candidates (sorry, but that's the way it is in the US) and there were some (potentially embarrassing) responses to direct criticism.

I do feel for our European and other global commentators who had to endure this "debate." I'm an unabashed Conservative, and found myself hollering at Romney about 1/3rd as often as I did Obama.

At least it's over, and pundits (or 'pundints' as some would say) can endlessly debate who's the winner. I heard nothing about the tech sector, so why scream "we won" when we were collectively ignored?

The US election process drags its collective carcass along.

Makes me wonder if the original poster has a control thing going. This future life is far more controlled than controlling. Can you say "nanny government," "nanny society"?

The bigger government gets the fewer our liberties become. I despise tobacco in any form, but overarching government is infinitely worse. Government itself does have a quandary, on the one hand it makes huge sums from taxes on tobacco products, on the other hand the urge to control EVERYTHING is irresistible. Not that I'm expressing sympathy for government.

Anyone who thinks it's a good idea, please stop to consider that if government gains control in this situation, it's not going to stop. Sooner or later they'll come after each of us and exert increasing control over every aspect of life.

No, I'm not paranoid; they really are after all of us.

.

Living in AT&T land, I had their "premium" 6/0.4 DSL service. Then one fine day they poured a slab for the U-verse cabinet at the end of the street. Such a deal, phone/video/Internet! Actually, boys & girls, I only want the Internet. Turns out they suddenly lose interest if they can't sell you TV. Since I don't have a TV in my house it seemed silly to pay extra for crap-vision.

Then they started messing with my DSL service. Change the IP address up to three times a day. Really? You manage your network so poorly you have to re-arrange it that often? Of course not, we just want you to upgrade to our fine U-verse service (with TV, of course.)

Finally they made a decent offer for 18/1.5 service and I snapped it up. It's simply amazing, no - miraculous that my IP address hasn't changed since that day. I have heard they use (nearly) static addresses on U-verse to make it easier to distribute the video. But thank you, AT&T for the miracle in my life! At least, thanks for not messing with my IP address any more.

Grump, and after I spent a few hours writing my own DDNS software to cope with their former animosity...

Hitler ran the Nazi party. Nazi - translated to English it means National Socialist. That's left of center, son. Stalin was a Communist, that's even farther to the left. Sorry if the truth hurts, but the phrase "right wing authoritarians" - just doesn't scan. It's Socialism where the needs of the many outweight the needs of the few (sorry, Spock.)

Perhaps you fear liberty?

I believe we'd have to put most government employees in jail. Yes, we do have many really good people in government service, but the real problem is that government "service" tends to attract the worst in society. I could use words like "greedy," "avaricious," and "corrupt" but that would tend to denigrate them. I know people who have worked in government and left in disgust. If I knew only one, I'd write it off - but I know several.

Anybody can make a mistake, but this was a doozy!

Also, as others have pointed out, this is really old news. I have to wonder how people can be isolated from what's going on to the extent it takes three weeks for the facts to trickle down to them. A little scary.

Deliver a speech to a (partly) empty stadium? Heaven forfend! No, we'll create rain if we have to. Nothing going on here, move along...

I could drive 40-50 minutes each way each day, but when I leave home at 5 AM and arrive at work at 5:20 approx. life is good. Going home at 1:20 PM doesn't stink either. The key is having an employer who appreciates I can get a lot of important work done before everyone else shows up and who doesn't mind coming in later for coverage (4-person IT staff at a small college.)

And it's not skin, it's mucosa. Stick your tongue into your cheek; that's mucosa. The head of your penis (and the inner foreskin) are mucosa - when circumcised as an infant, that single layer of cells toughens into about 17 layers. I got cut at age 21, my choice, not someone else's. Looking back, I was being foolish (the grass was SUPPOSED to be greener on the other side of that fence!) But it was my choice. Yes, there was hypersensitivity and a gradual loss of sensation in the head.

As a gay man, I've had intimate contact with both natural and cut cocks. I'll take the natural one ten times out of ten! I feel fortunate that my partner is intact.

I once met a young English man who was uncut. Love the story he told me - in the showers if you're seen to be cut they call you "three-skin" - not enough there for a foreskin.

Here's an honest evaluation of "what's really going on." It's established that crew often use iPads or other tablets as their checklist reference. Fine, wonderful! OK, we're much closer to the instruments, and our CPU clock, refresh clock, etc. are much more likely to cause interference. I call B.S. on the whole thing. There are emissions and there are emissions.

If there are radio frequency emissions from your CPU, your GPU, etc., you *could* be interfering. If there are emissions from your RF-rich device that wasn't properly designed, why that's your problem (or more properly, the people who manufactured the iWhatsit).

FWIW, I once enjoyed an LAX->PDX (Los Angeles to Portland OR) flight where I used my pillow to hide the GPS antenna (we're talking Garmin GPS III here) that was jammed against the left window (hooray for window seats!) and used a WinXX laptop connected by serial cable to watch our progress, with some software I don't remember at the moment. The altimeter function of the GPS was pretty acurate, and it was fun to observe how the pilot strictly followed "IFR" (I Follow Roads) rules. We tracked Interstate 5 up to the Oregon border, then we cut across from Grass Pants (oops, Grant's Pass) direct to Portland. I didn't, in fact, blow up the airliner in flight - and we landed without incident. Those were the days.

The plane didn't suddenly swerve when I switched on the GPS, or for that matter, the laptop. Eternity did not stare the passengers right in the face. Calamity did not ensue.

This is not presented as an absolute refutation of claims made by various (too lazy to work) government employees. It's my personal experience. I ENJOYED seeing where we were. It didn't matter where we were, it was simply enjoyable to be empowered to the point where I had independent confirmation we weren't on a direct route to Miami FL (or pick some other destination.)

Much ado about nothing, sez I.

I for one am looking forward to that day when I can see nothing but solar cells. Desert? Heck no, solar cells! Mountains? Nope, amorphous silicon as far as the eye can see.

The state of Colorado issues concealed carry permits, or to be more precise, the sheriff for each county issues them. Under that law, someone in the audience could have been armed and could have defended against the killer. The theater owners, on the other hand, have a no-gun policy on their property.

The theater owners made a conscious decision to ban firearms, and it was that decision that kept lawful firearms carriers from being armed and in the room when the killer burst in. We may never know if a theater patron could have stopped the killing, but did not have their weapon because of the policy. In the US we call gun-free zones "killing zones" because people who want to commit mass murder seek them out.

As to your trust issue, the purpose of carrying concealed is so that no one else (either good folks or bad folks) knows you are armed. As to trusting you with the information that I'm armed, in the US it's considered none of your business. If I'm armed I'm not carrying a firearm to do harm to you, but rather to protect myself, my family or friends in a situation like the one at the theater. Statistically, handgun permit holders have proven to be more law-abiding than those who do not have the permits. One reason is that the permit holder has full awareness of the law.

As to my permit, it authorizes me to carry a handgun either openly or concealed, my choice. Carrying a weapon openly not only makes some people unnecessarily concerned, it also identifies me to "the bad guy." Every law enforcement officer I've heard express an opinion on the subject strongly recommends that citizens carry their weapons concealed. My mother always had a pistol in her purse, thankfully she never had a reason to display it, much less use it. She was honored and loved, and very few people knew she was also armed.

I do not say or imply anything negative about any other country or its policies; I'm simply stating the situation in the US.