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Comment Re:Terrible Idea (Score 4, Insightful) 498

by Palpitations (#26074979) Attached to: Nobel Prize Winning Physicist As Energy Secretary

Any real policy involves trade offs between what's best for a large number of different groups, each of which has different needs, goals, tolerance for risk, etc. Deciding how to make those tradeoffs and select who's interests take priority in any given situation is largely subjective. While science can help determine how feasible a given proposal is (and even then, it's more in the realm of engineering than science), it's silent on which solution is best.

I'd like to direct you to Dr. Chu's opening speech from UC Berkeley's California & The Future of Environmental Law & Policy event. While 45 minutes is far too short to go over everything (and far too long for a crowd that almost never bothers to RTFA), he addresses some of the points you make. This is from back in 2005 or so, I gather, but it's clear he has a good grasp on the challenges and potential solutions to be found. I can only imagine that he's refined his positions and proposals since then, but is the first related thing I found when I looked this morning. There's probably something more recent and relevant out there.

In any case, I applaud this choice. It sure beats the venture capitalist/CEO/treasury wonk we've got now (in his credit, he does have an Sc.D. in chemical engineering - but it seems like he's never used it, preferring to go into the financial sector instead). Before him, we had a law professor. Before that, someone who studied French/poli-sci/foreign affairs. Before that, another lawyer. I'm sure you get the idea... There has never been someone with anywhere near his credentials appointed to the job.
Censorship

Submission + - Wikileaks to retaliate aganist Scientology (wikinews.org) 5

Submitted by
DragonFire1024
DragonFire1024 writes: "Wikinews.org — Wikinews has learned that The Church of Scientology has warned the documents leaking site Wikileaks.org that they are in violation of United States copyright laws after they published several documents related to the Church. Wikileaks has no intentions of complying, and states that in response, they intend to publish thousands of Scientology documents next week.
In the letter to Wikileaks, lawyers for the Church's Religious Technology Center (RTC), which oversees the use of the their logos, writings and religious content, states that the site "placed RTC's Advanced Technology works on Wikileaks.org's website without the authorization" of the Church.
"I have a good faith belief, and in fact know for certain, that posting copies of these works through your system was not authorized by my client, any agent of my client, or the law. Please be advised that your customer's action in this regard violates United States copyright law. Accordingly, we ask for your help in removing these works immediately from your service," states the letter from Ava Paquette of Moxon & Kobrin which was published by Wikileaks.
"Wikileaks will not comply with legally abusive requests from Scientology any more than Wikileaks has complied with similar demands from Swiss banks, Russian off-shore stem cell centers, former African Kleptocrats, or the Pentagon. Wikileaks will remain a place where people of the world may safely expose injustice and corruption," stated Wikileaks in a statement on their website.
Wikileaks further states that "in response to the attempted suppression, Wikileaks will release several thousand pages of Scientology material next week.""
Censorship

Submission + - Scientology Legal Machine starts on Wikileaks! (wikileaks.org) 3

Submitted by
Freedom
Freedom writes: "http://www.wikileaks.org/wiki/Church_of_Scientology_collected_Operating_Thetan_documents

Wikileaks is reporting that The Religious Technology Center ("RTC"), "the owner of the confidential Advanced Technology of the Scientology religion and the holder of exclusive rights under the copyrights applicable to the Advanced Technology materials." has sent it's first legal threat to Wikileaks, demanding that they remove the material on the grounds of Copyright held in the United States.

This is the response all critics were expecting of the Church of Scientology, who's constant attack and litigation strategy still does not change in the era of the Streisand Effect.

The RTC requests that Wikileaks

preserve any and all documents pertaining to this
matter and this customer, including, but not limited to, logs, data
entry sheets, applications — electronic or otherwise, registrations
forms, billings statements or invoices, computer print-outs, disks,
hard drives, etc.


Join the campaign against the oppressive totalitarian pyramid business posing as religion on enturbulation dot org."
Censorship

Submission + - Wikileaks reveals the complete Scientology OT docs (wikileaks.org) 4

Submitted by
FreedomToThink
FreedomToThink writes: "The complete Church of Scientology collected Operating Thetan documents have now been released by Wikileaks in PDF form, including both the original and the new versions of all OT levels I to VIII.

The documents were previously released online by the collective known as Anonymous but they were only available via bittorrent.
The complete collection of Scientology's Operating Thetan levels normally cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to access by working your way through the Scientology system. The Church of Scientology denies the information exists, but the authenticity of these documents can be verified by any former OT level members of the Church of Scientology such as Jesse Prince (former No.2 of the 'Church'), Michael Pattinson (OT VIII), Tory Christman (OT VII) and 10 year Scientology member turned renowned critic, Arnie Lerma, who's home was raided at the bequest of the church of Scientology in 1995, to recover copies of the OT texts which had been legally obtained via the court release of them during the Fishman case.

Though these texts have appeared online before, they have always been rapidly hit with copyright claims and lawsuits by the church of Scientology, despite at the same time denial of the existence, or authenticity of the documents.

Older versions of these texts, versions of OT levels I to VII were once made available to the public for under 100 dollars as exhibits attached to a declaration by Steven Fishman on 9 April 1993 as part of Church of Scientology International v. Fishman and Geertz. The text of this declaration and its exhibits were collectively known as the Fishman Affidavit. These exhibits were eventually sealed by a judge after petitioning by the Church of Scientology, as their contents were worth hundreds of thousands of dollars per reader to them.

This is the third major Scientology leak on Wikileaks spawned by the Anonymous campaign against what it calls "the corrupt business known as the 'Church of Scientology'". Previously there was :

Citizens Commission on Human Rights exposed as a Scientology front Which holds proof of political lobbying that is in violation of it's 501(c)(3) Tax Exempt status
The 'Frank Oliver' documents as discussed on slashdot recently in Wikileaks Airs Scientology Black Ops"
Education

How Much is Your Right to Vote Worth? 857

Posted by samzenpus from the how-much-are-you-offering dept.
Attila Dimedici writes "Two thirds of the students at NYU would give up their right to vote in the next election for a full scholarship. Some would be satisfied with an ipod. A few would be willing to give up the right for the rest of their lives for one million dollars."

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For God's sake, stop researching for a while and begin to think!

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