That takes balls.

It makes me think of separate but equal. Man the internet wants to be open, let it be open.

that Slashdot now needs a "Florida" tag?

We've been on the verge of running out of oil, running out of fresh water, and killing our oceans how many times now? I have no doubt that some day humans will go the way of the dinosaurs but it will probably be a long time from now unless a killer virus morphs into something that spreads uncontrollably and kills off all of earth's connected humans. If that happens then the lost tribes in the Amazon and on some Asian islands will probably still be isolated enough and will be able to repopulate the earth.

He has raised taxes on things like cigarettes and alcohol.

We have a crumbling infrastructre. The 35W bridge is simply a glaring example of that. The fact is that we are not doing a good job of maintaining what our forfathers built. Replacing is generally far more expensive than maintaining.

Yes today they would not build a bridge the same way they did in years past.

I'm pleased that our administration can sleep at night but I don't understand how they can do it. They are causing our neediest citizens a much poorer life. The cuts in welfare are deeply affecting people in nursing homes. It is forcing changes in their medication and even restricts some of the "hardware" that they need for health and comfort (catheters and so on). I know one person who was required to change plans only to discover that a specialist they needed could no longer treat them.

I guess this news should have floored me but it doesn't. We have an entrenched administration that has the mantra "No new taxes" which has a nice sounding ring to it but the result has been less pretty (like a major interstate bridge that just decided to fall into the Mississippi river). I was drivng down the freeway today and the truck was bouncing around so badly I had to slow down (and I was not speeding).

How does all this relate to moving to the Microsoft cloud? I am sure the state is getting a low cost price to get them in the door. Once hooked the price will go up and it will need to be paid and some other service will be asked to do more with less. Maybe the old lady in the nursing home will have to cut back on someting like drugs or catheters. Maybe a school will have to put off buying science textbooks (for the tenth year in a row).

You sound just like someone who got a DWI and is whining about how unfair it is. You got "Busted" - deal with it.

I think Verizon did you a favor and I am 99.999% sure that their conduct is allowed under their Terms of Service.

That said, I would have done things differently. I would have redirected you to a page telling you exactly what you need to do to regain access. I don't like doing things like changing the user's router settings or passwords. I figure if you have to do the work maybe you will remember it a bit better.

Verizon did you a favor; STFU and get over it.

Try your county sheriff. The cops are appointed and their boss is the mayor or in the case of the college the dean. The sheriff is elected and reports to the people. Go there and tell them that you are not getting decent help from the campus cops.

It is also true that you can go to the courts yourself and get the court to subpoena the ISP's records. They will cooperate.

I'm not the brightest bulb on the block and that manifests it self as fear when I don't understand something. I am petrified of cancer and of some sort of sudden brain injury (my dad suffered many strokes before his death and my mom died of cancer). The author of the article probably has a couple of fears too. Couple that with his 'marching orders" which was probably something like "Write a doom and gloom article about the cyber-security risks to America's infrastructure for July 4th" and you get a superficial fluffy article that is intended to scare people who read The Economist.

The author probably read a lot of background matterial and understood about 20% of it (like when I tried to read about cancer in medical jounals). He was left concernd and still not understanding most of what he needed to know. Bear in mind he writes for a magazine called "The Economist" and not one called "Slashdot". On top of that there do seem to be a lot of authorities that sound terribly concerned about security (and sell products to protect you).

Anyway the editors got what they wanted and he got published.

At first blush it appears to be hype but I am trying to keep an open mind because of something that happened to me when I saw my first HD TV picture. I was of the opinion that HD couldn't be that much better than SD. Shortly after I saw my first HD images I was ready to admit that I was wrong. From the moment I laid eyes on HD I knew there was a whole new world out there! I am now a certifiable HD snob. I don't know what I did before but I do know I watched less TV.

I haven't seen one of the new TVs yet to day I think it makes a difference or not. I will know, and probably rather quickly when I see it if I believe it or not. The first place I will look is at white/black interfaces. That should tell me a lot.

I really do hope it is hype. I think the 47" TV is a little too big to be moved into the bedroom.

But are you really paranoid if they are out to get you?

I don't buy into the fact that all of the changes since 9/11 have made us safer. They have caused us untold inconvenience and hassle. There is little doubt that the entire TSA is a waste of time, effort, and money. The billions of dollars that have been spent on upgrading the civil defense structures (police, fire, EMS and so on) have maybe helped communities out by having some additional equipment but they really aren't doing much to deter terrorism. All in all what 9/11 did was made a bunch of government providers very rich (example a 24' boat costing almost $250,000 was recently ordered by the Ramsey County MN Sheriff's Department. It was approved by the County Commissioners because it would be paid for out of Homeland Security and Stimulus funds. The boat is justified because it can be used to fight terrorism on the Mississippi River!

But there are some very nasty people out there who are out to get us. Good old fashioned vigilance goes a lot further than all these high tech toys and making us take our shoes off at the airport.

Maybe some of that stimulus money should go to hot dog cart vendors?

Bravo! There are many forms of prejudice and I suspect that Ms Thomas has felt more than her share. Thank you for so skillfully pointing out that people are making assumptions.

Also for what it is worth, Brainerd is not really in the iron range.

You can get a pretty decent place near Brainerd for $54 grand (as long as it doesn't have shoreline footage).

The Mille Lacs Band is not known for paying high wages...