You assume that I think the Koch brothers are dicks b/c of a New York Times editorial? I think they're dicks because they're funneling money into local elections in places such as my hometown, where they've never even been to. Among other things, such as trying to undermine solar energy.

Stop viewing politics through your black and white -- or should I say left and right -- worldview. You appear to be overly concerned with labels -- Left, Libertarian, conservative, white, progressive, etc. The reason our government is so bad at governing is because it's filled with idealist jackasses such as yourself (just in case you're confused, that's an attack on both parties and there was no partisan motivation behind my characterization of the Kochs as dicks).

Here's another one: New Straitsville, OH

Yes. They're definitely dicks.

It sounds like you only read the summary. If you had taken the time to actually gather the facts about this situation you'd realize it wasn't even a case of sexual harassment. It was a case of an employee being more concerned with a crusade of political correctness than actually doing her job. Women like Julie Ann Horvath who intentionally antagonize those who aren't perfectly politically correct (and in this case, her idea of perfectly politically correct is one helluva stretch -- if you think the word 'meritocracy' is sexist then I don't know what to tell you) make it harder for other women to be taken seriously.

I don't think anyone here is saying that sexual harassment shouldn't be taken seriously. They're just saying this crazy bitch shouldn't.

Although I won't be trying this thing out because it's not worth the cost, I can see the advantages it offers. I think your haste to jump to a negative conclusion is a poor attitude, especially on a place like /. where geeks mull over novel ideas such as this.

Personally, I have my reservations about this idea -- it seems like it would be ideal for easy to split wood but the tough stuff not so much. Basically, because of the weight limitation the automatic rotation doesn't seem like it will matter so much. It still has the same limitation of a regular axe - weight. A maul/wedge combo still seems like it would be better.

I'd still like to try it myself to put it to the test. Perhaps if they go into mass production and show up at Lowes for ~$50 I'd pick one up. If it's the miracle axe the video portrays it'd save me a helluva a lot of time and energy. I have my doubts, but I have even greater doubts about your description of a "defective axe."

Strawmen are so easy to burn.

In my experience that's not true. Practically all cheap (i.e. not dedicated) hosting solutions have Python. I have a small site on FatCow.com and it supports Python without forking over extra for a dedicated server.

I can understand free hosting solutions lacking Python (and perhaps lacking any scripting whatsoever), but anything you pay for should be able to run Python scripts. Python is so common and easy to implement I can't imagine why any web host would lack it.

You seem to forget that Facebook and Microsoft are in bed together. I wouldn't really consider them to be an innovator, though. Facebook's like the internet's Windows '95 -- and they're buying up companies in a fashion similar to how Microsoft did in the 90s.

I disagree. I think kids should be given a good Linux distro and an internet connection. Why do they need Visual Studio and books?

There are tons of crappy open source GUIs but there's also XFCE and LXDE.

Anyway, the guy you're responding to never mentioned open source. A fair Apples to Apples comparison is OS X, which Microsoft hasn't been able to catch up to for almost fifteen years. It's pretty sad that there are open source GUIs like XFCE that are drastically better than XP, Vista, 7, and especially 8.

The church doesn't have a monopoly on marriage. The courtroom does. I know someone who was married in a church and then they never got around to filing the legal paperwork. Technically, they're not married (which was a good thing as it made 'divorce' that much easier).

Hate? I didn't read anything hateful in that comment. Incorrectly reframing an argument is one of the biggest problems with this issue.

"I don't believe in gay marriage," for example, often gets reframed into "gays don't deserve rights."

Fifteen years ago no one would have believed that gay marriage would ever become a reality. It was a weird and foreign idea. Now it's legal in a bunch of states and will probably be a national thing before long. Things aren't just the way they are. Things change and that change starts by people talking about it.

Unfortunately, the actual marriage related problems haven't be framed in the proper context and hence the solutions -- gay marriage -- is completely wrong. The problem is marriage as a legal status for individuals. It shouldn't exist and no benefits for it should exist either. Extending it to homosexuals does nothing to solve the actual problems presented by legal marriage.

I completely agree. Legal marriage should be opposed whether it's for gay or straight couples. Why is it the government's business who I've devoted my life to? Why should I be taxed differently because my significant other and I decided to sign a piece of paper? It's an archaic social custom that should have no place in modern society.

Those that modded you troll kind of proved your point. Although I think you exaggerated quite a bit, I agree with what you're saying. When an employer can dictate your politics, what's the point of democracy?

This is pretty spot on. The whole issue appears to be the tendency of some people to try and condense the truth into a general statement, such as, "fleas on rats spread the bubonic plague." Of course the truth is more complex and may not be fully understood, but I don't think serious scholars ever asserted that fleas on rats were the only mechanism by which the disease was spread. The important part of the theory was that fleas on rats on boats brought the bacteria from China to Europe and then facilitated its spread.