"Come to Islam" is rhetorical. It's boilerplate AQ copy that doesn't mean anything. It's PR for his own recruiting strategy. That letter is as much to potential recruits as it is to the American people. I believe he refers to us as "Friends of Satan" a few lines down from there.

Crashing planes into world financial centers is direct cause and effect for a stated military/economic goal. Which of the two goals do you think BL thought he could actually pull off?

Bin Laden's stated goal was not to turn the west to Islam. Why would he want a bunch of white devils screwing up his precious Islam. He hated us remember?

His goal was to destroy Wall St and the US/Saudi economy (He was mad at his rich family and their rich US friends - Like the Bush's and Clintons!). Hence crashing planes into our primary economic hub. Remember that part? Makes much more sense as a tactic for financial ruin opposed to a recruiting strategy wouldn't you say?

In 2004, Bin Laden released a tape to Al-Jazeera where the former head of Al Qaeda laid out the purpose of the 9/11 attacks, and the organization’s goals. “We are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy. Allah willing, and nothing is too great for Allah,” Bin Laden said.

This is why I always laugh at the phrase "Never Forget." Everyone keeps forgetting!

The cow doesn't get to choose how it gets milked.

While I agree with your premise your metaphor is actually incorrect. This is likely due to the age of the expression but robotics now allows cows to choose when and how they are milked. Cows also give the most milk and are far less stressed with the "elective milking" system.

Automatic Milking

There are many eerie parallels between the Aaron Swartz and Peter McWilliams stories.

MS is betting big on NUI input - not just touch. There's a HUGE difference. The Kinect can easily be used for NUI input. As can many other technologies that don't require actually touching anything - hence gorilla arms are just a small piece of the interaction picture. Eye-tracking interfaces can even provide NUI output that could operate W8 without changing anything on the Windows side.

I love how you dismiss marketing as an invalid answer without any reason or citation for doing so. Just because you don't want it to be part of the argument it doesn't mean it isn't a prime factor.

Dude. Do you even watch the show? Half of it is on-camera experts talking about experiment logistics and safety procedures. For example the explosives expert Frank Doyle they've used to supervise every explosion at the Alameda County Sheriff's Bomb Range since the show began. I know the dudes name and the the range because Frank Doyle has been in like 30 episodes.

How's that whole choosing who gets to lead struggles thing going for you? Not good you say? One doesn't choose a leader they emerge and one chooses to heed their guidance or not? GTFO? Really? Wow? Thought you had an ace in the hole with that argument.

Actually it's Wikileaks that describe themselves as journalists (they provide editorial context) and publishers (they publish the source info that gets leaked to them). I got that wrong above. JA considers himself a scientific journalist (or data journalist in some parlance) that unites editorial content with the source documents/data to heighten transparency and give readers an opportunity to form their own conclusions.

Like I said, pure evil.

I think your snark detector is broken.

JA describes himself (accurately IMO) as a publisher which is an act of journalism one engages in without being an actual journalist. It's a more general term.

Whenever I look around at our current field of "respected" journalists and then back at JA I don't know how one can come to the conclusion that he's the evil one.

No matter how many acts of journalism this guys commits I will never see him as a journalist. I have to like someone personally first and also make sure they have a flawless record using a standard that I set and reserve only for him. Until this impossible standard is met I will bash in any way I can regardless of logic and back calls for his extrajudicial murder.

It's really the only sensible path Very Serious People can take.

I know this was posted in jest but you may not be far off when it comes to a "defense" for such a system. Internet sock puppetry could get a whole lot more interesting.

I wasn't sure if you were trolling earlier but no there's no doubt.

The scientists in question have been cleared of wrong-doing many times over by multiple entities. What exactly are you trying to argue here?

In case you haven't noticed, the earth keeps getting hotter. The predicted melting of the ice caps, ocean acidity increases, ocean temperature, storms, floods, hurricanes, etc. are all on the increase as generally predicted. Noticed all the jellyfish at the shore lately? Climate science prediction continues to increase in accuracy and the results are easier to monitor than anytime previously.

You seem to be missing the point, intentionally, so you can continue to say smartish-sounding stupid shit.

What I want to know is what it will take for you to believe that man-made activities are fucking up the climate. Not what scientific data do you need to see. What needs to physically happen to the earth before you believe it?

Called the No-Shit-Sherlock Department. This would be a good example of an agency press release.