"Schmoozing is part of sales"
Exactly and when the regulated schmoozes the regulator, what else could the regulated be trying to sell other than various flavors of corruption? That is why, in this case, the schmoozing can only come at the detriment of society as a whole, and it is a significant example of how rampant regulatory capture is in our society.

"I've been invited to boxes by vendors before"
If I were a stock holder of your company then I would take issue with that because part of the price your company is being charged by that vendor covers such activities (which either reduces dividends or intrinsic value of the company). It is simply a form of wealth transfer to the corrupt and a textbook example of the principle-agent dilemma (unless you are both in this example).

I see, so because the poster (who could be supporting the agenda of either side) exaggerated, Comcast's invitation is now completely kosher (how many regulator have you schmoozed lately, regardless of the venue?), and the U.S. no longer has a regulatory capture problem that needs to be addressed. . .

You know, for awhile I thought it was the overwhelming power of the wealthy that prevented change, but now I get the sense that it is the underwhelming intellectual capability of people like yourself that are dragging us down. Happy 4th. . .

I suppose I could go into a rant and write a long post lamenting the influence of the wealthy on our government. However, I think I will just shut-up and do something about it instead by going here and doubling my pledge. . .

It should have been: Archibald Tuttle

Well, they always had access to it, but they just could not make it useful by mapping it to a specific identity.

I wonder how many unique individual DNA can be extracted on average by taking a sample of rain run-off from a busy city street? Let me coin the process here as "Gutter Diving."

Sorry, I have never seen a "repost" feature on Slashdot (you appear to have been here longer than me, so perhaps you can clue me in on that feature).

Furthermore, NYC is the most populated, densely packed city in the U.S. If you are going to maximize human suffering from a nuclear blast (or MOAB, per other posters), that is the primary target in the U.S. Since the point of my post was that having your own 777 could allow you to pick the optimal position to maximize damage, I believe my choice of NYC was reasonable.

I doubt Slashdot posts will be able to divert terrorists . . .

What if there is exactly just one flight left? How many repairs need to be made then?

Anyway, I think others have already put a lot more thought into this.

How hard would it be to make this plane "reappear" as another plane with a flight destination of New York City? It would seem like a legit flight (might have to make another plane disappear, but you have already seemed to master that trick once).

Of course, by then you have had time to retrofit the plane with your crude nuke you have put together (hell, you have the entire space of the 777 to fit the thing, so it could more primitive than the trinity test. . . ). You could then deviate the flight only at the very last minute to the best possible position to detonate for maximized damage (fighter jets would have no time to respond).

Probably being paranoid here, but why else would you need a 777 that could only be used for a short time before being discovered?

Are you sure? That sounds a bit geocentric to me . . .

Two things:

- Everytime we thought that a diety was responsible for something in our universe, we have been able create a mathematical model to replace that diety (e.g. Atlas).
- People can think of tons of crazy math that has no application to our universe.

Alright, perhaps we need to inform all these countries that they do, in fact, not have currencies . . .

An unstable currency is still a currency (Just because a "thing" has some attribute does not mean we have to create an entirely new "noun." That is why the English language has "adjectives.").

Two things:
-Crypto-currencies can still be awesome without "long term inherent stability" (are you sure you are a "geek?")
-You do realize that math covers everything in our universe and BEYOND. Accordingly, I would be careful about what constraints you put on it. . . as it is statistically more likely that your mind is just creating artificial constraints.

Irregardless, thanks for the links.

Other billionaires require some kind of impossibly complicated strategy to steal their billions. . .

Hope he takes the necessary precautions, though. . . Crypto-currencies are awesome. He deserves to spend the rest of his days in peace (For a crypto-genius, he could have picked a better pseudonym, though . . .).

I apologize if I find it silly that you are saying that water is more harmful (Stalin, no less) than diet pills that can kill you.

In fact, in consideration to the above link, I think Homeopathic diet pills are relatively safe and should be sold everywhere.

Thank you for the link. I will try to find the underlying data the article is based on. A key attribute I would look for would be the "uniformity" of the readings. When the contamination source is thousands of miles away, a uniformed air distribution could be assumed. With reports of "hot spots" and contamination maps indicating a wide range of contamination densities, I would think a different approach would be required. Either way, it looks like the areas where over 4 million people most at risk (Fukushima and Miyagi) were excluded. I really wish they would just throw all this data at a place like Google Data Explorer.

I think you are assuming the primary "vector" of contamination is the air and are discounting cumulative effects. Do all foods pull in Cs and Sr in equal proportions to ground contamination? Does Cs and Sr have the same biological half life in humans?

I want to know, but how much control do have when they decide not to tell.