No, BigName Company was caught with their hand in the proverbial cookie jar, and the backlash was strong enough that they were forced to backtrack a bit. You could just substitute "Lenovo" and "Superfish" with "Verizon" and "supercookie", and the story would essentially be identical.

Don't discount the importance these headlines, though. The very fact that it *makes* news is a good thing, as it's the only thing that typically forces these companies to back down.

I agree that asset forfeiture against citizens isn't warranted unless those assets are the direct gains of illegal activity. There are already punitive laws in place. This practice seemed to emerge with the "war on drugs", and continued with the war on terror.

I think a case could be made for asset seizure against foreign criminals, as there's no other way to punish them for crimes committed. I don't see why an "armed response" would be warranted if there's criminal activity involved. Of course, the big gotcha in all of this is that it's incredibly difficult to actually *prove* who's behind a cyber attack unless you can seize the person's personal computer.

Honestly, I think this is mostly saber-rattling aimed at NK and China, telling them that the US is willing to impose some financial hardships on anyone who attacks any US interests via the internet.

Yeah, you should probably check a country's laws before you electronically infiltrate their corporations, banking system, or military computers. This isn't about citizens in other countries simply minding their own business. For those that are wondering how foreigners can be charged with US law, look up "extradition treaty". For those with whom we haven't signed such a treaty, look up "financial sanctions" or "asset forfeiture".

How purposefully obtuse do you have to be not to get this?

Or you could say humans have obvious Wookiee traits. Seriously though, I'd posit that he has very *subtle* human traits that we only recognize due to our tendency to anthropomorphize. No one would accidentally mistake him for a human - that's all I was saying.

That being said, I agree with you 100% about brilliant Mayhew's performance, as he completely brought Chewbacca to life. I'd also credit Ben Burtt with his magnificent sound design as well. I loved how you could always clearly understand what he was actually saying or feeling simply through his performance and the vocalizations. Frankly, I think saying that an actor *needs* his entire face visible is selling short the best actors, like Mayhew, who have performed amazing roles with mostly body language, or through a terribly restrictive mask.

My favorite two Chewie scenes: Alone in the Cloud City detention cell / repairing C3PO, and meeting up with Han in the cell under Jabba's palace.

No they ground up the composite panels to reclaim the cocaine it was pressed out of.

I remember seeing it. Not in the theater, but maybe on TV or someone rented it or something. It was not too bad for the time, although actually a little more odd and scary than the other Disney fare you'd have gotten back in the day.

And yes, don't bother seeing it if you know anything about how real black holes work. This is very much something you only really enjoy if you are a kid, or your understanding of black holes is almost completely uninformed.

It's seldom trivial to get evidence thrown out. You pretty much have to show that they were lying. Not always easy.

Because it's one thing for a project to have a MIT license where no patent promises are given. It's another to spell out a patent promise that specifically forbids certain behaviors that are common in open source. Not being able to use the code in non .NET projects makes it very unappealing as much open source is reused and ported to other platforms.

Education 100 years ago was not controlled by a Government body. Surely there were exceptions, but schools worked off of a certain philosophy which has been replaced. We could also argue that not everyone could go to school 100 years ago, or some such tangent which ignores the problem I brought up.

Read what I wrote again. I did not state that it was done 40 years ago, I stated that it took about 40 years to remove the classical system completely from our schools. The introduction of the Prussian system was in the 1930s when the US Department of Education was formed. The founders explicitly stated that they wanted workers in industry, not people that could think. History is a marvelous thing, and all of this is well documented.

In general Ewan seemed much more appropriate for the role of teenage Anakin than Hayden. Hayden was just cardboard. And no I have not been impressed by him in any other roles either. Whereas some of Ewan's earlier work are spot on for the kind of character Anakin needed to be in the prequels.

Bad acting due to bad direction and horrible writing aggravated by casting that was also bad.

The prequel had too much George in it.

They do clear unrepentant pot smokers. But only if you are absolutely necessary to employ. If you're just a normal IT person who needs a clearance, you're done on the drug questions if you don't make it absolutely clear that you don't do that anymore.

Not only that but he upstaged anyone else that EVER played that role.

Jack Nicholson merely played The Joker. Heath WAS the Joker.

Never ascribe to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest. She's not disconnected from reality, she's trying to disconnect you and me from reality.

She doesn't seem to be very good at it.

Are you trying to suggest that Politicians are above the treatment everyone else in society receives? Do you somehow believe that even though every cable and communication you send to grandma gets archived and sifted through, people like Hillary Clinton should be exempt? Evidence provided to law enforcement agencies by the NSA can not include those "special" class of people?

No, you must have something else in mind and simply failed so state your case properly.