That's pre-9/11 talk, citizen. Now pick up that can!

Everyone else is getting contracts which require them to sign away their works forever, sign away any future works in the same genre, sign away all electronic rights, etc... for a $5K advance on a one or two book contract.

Exactly. Somehow, those predatory publisher contracts never come up in these threads about how evil Amazon is.

And the barrel riding was supposed to be a leisurely ride down the river

Yeeeeah, we'll get right on that. Everyone from the studio execs to the Oscar committee will positively leap with glee when we release our new $200,000,000 holiday-season spectacular, THE HOBBIT, PART II: A LEISURELY RIDE DOWN THE RIVER.

Pro tip: Don't quit your day job to move to Hollywood.

"Why are scientists continuing to take chances with uranium?"
"Why are scientists continuing to take chances with high voltage?"
"Why are scientists continuing to take chances with dimethyl mercury?"

Because science.

Also, there's no reason to obsess over the presence of a few virus particles in a jar on a shelf somewhere, if we have the source code in the form of its gene sequence. In that case we'll be able to resynthesize the virus at our leisure, at some point in the not-too-distant future.

And if we don't already have the gene sequence in hand, well, that's a problem in itself.

Not too familiar with Einstein's career and the massive amount of "consensus"-based opposition he had to deal with, I take it.

When you own the CIA, you're a little bit more responsible than the people in Congress who don't know anything about the supposed "threat" but what they're told.

Not everything has to be a Federal matter.

Probably so. Mahatma Gandhi advocated fighting the Nazis with a one-two knockout punch of surrender and mass suicide. Mother Theresa was a galactic douche with PR talents that you might expect from the love child of Oprah Winfrey and Gandalf. And FDR, well, about the best you can say about FDR is that he made World War II look like a lucky break for the US economy.

Woz? Um, well, I heard he was caught doing 115 MPH in a Prius. That's about the only bad thing anyone has ever said about him. Personally, I would have given him a trophy rather than a ticket, but that's probably why I'm not a cop.

Is that the sequel to "Stephen Wolfram Is a Big Fat Idiot"?

It will work by making the wearer look like a schizophrenic who's off his meds. Here's the patent drawing: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/47/Dt2wrr.jpg

"Murder."

So long as you set up an elaborate trap with the intention of killing, but don't pull the trigger yourself.

You're entitled to your own opinion, but not to your own dictionary.

It is always a temptation to an armed and agile nation
    To call upon a neighbour and to say: --
"We invaded you last night--we are quite prepared to fight,
    Unless you pay us cash to go away."

And that is called asking for Dane-geld,
    And the people who ask it explain
That you've only to pay 'em the Dane-geld
    And then you'll get rid of the Dane!

It is always a temptation for a rich and lazy nation,
    To puff and look important and to say: --
"Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you.
    We will therefore pay you cash to go away."

And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
    But we've proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
    You never get rid of the Dane.

It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation,
    For fear they should succumb and go astray;
So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
    You will find it better policy to say: --

"We never pay any-one Dane-geld,
    No matter how trifling the cost;
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
    And the nation that pays it is lost!"

...also sees cracks in accepted theory

And whose ability to spot those cracks mysteriously vanishes every Sunday morning for about two hours, along with any desire to do so.

Somebody should look into that. There might be a pill for it.

Yeah, it was a stupid idea to begin with, from an otherwise-brilliant man.