The lack of scientists at this hearing would be of interest if the last time the House had a meeting about drug laws they had invited drug dealers. Or drug users.

Note, by the by, that the real reason no scientists were invited is that scientists don't contribute meaningful amounts to reelection campaigns....

Who's the eldest being in Middle Earth, Tom Bombadil or Treebeard?

Bombadil was "eldest and fatherless".

Treebeard was merely the eldest Ent. Note that the Ents were awakened to sentience by the Elves, so Galadriel (who was among the Firstborn of the Elves) was older than Treebeard as well.

Note that the age of any particular Elf is problematic in general - very few of the Firstborn were mentioned by name, which is not the same as "only a few of the Firstborn were still alive in Middle Earth (much less in Valinor)".

Is "Sauron" (lit. "abominable") a name that he despises and does not permit his underlings to speak, and if so, why does he have his messenger refer to him as "Lord Sauron the Great" and a servant refer to himself as "the mouth of Sauron"?

Because they weren't speaking English, and it's annoying to have names for characters vary within a literary work? Or possibly because the comment about "he permits his name to be neither spelt nor spoken" was an exaggeration by Gandalf (the wisest of the Maiar) when speaking of Sauron (the most powerful of the Maiar)?

Why does Gandalf warn people against using devices "of an art deeper than we possess ourselves" when talking about the palantir and yet have no problem with with the fellowship using all sorts of magical items of arts deeper than they possess (glowing elvish swords, daggers from the barrow, the Phial of Galadriel, Galadriel's box of earth, etc)?

Because he meant "an art deeper than *I* possess" when he said that (he was using the Royal "we"...). The work of Feanor was beyond even the Maiar, unlike sharp pointy things made by Elves and handed out by same to diverse characters....

So Galadriel knows Sauron's thoughts that concern the elves, but didn't know of Saruman's betrayal, or never saw relevant to mention it to Gandalf?

Saruman was NOT an elf (it's not clear what he was - perhaps a Maiar like Gandalf). So "thoughts that concern the elves" didn't apply. Note that the thoughts in question weren't "thoughts of interest to elves", but "thought about the elves".

Oh, and the mithril shirt pretty much had to be hard enough to stop a blade, or there was no point to it. Most likely the "supple as linen" was marketing-speak for "amazingly light and flexible by the standards of a mailshirt". What, you didn't think they had marketing in Middle Earth? Marketing was one of those evils even older than Sauron that was mentioned in passing....

From memory.

Of course, my mnemonic for D-Day is "Twas the Dark of the Moon on the sixth of June in a Kenworth hauling logs..."

As to Midway, once upon a time, I read the History of the US Navy in WW2 (all fourteen volumes). One of the things mentioned there is that Yamamoto predicted that Japan would run amok in the Pacific for six months after Pearl Harbor...which was almost exactly the length of time from Pearl Harbor to Midway (off by only three days).

Which is my point in reference to 12/7, Pearl Harbor, an event which lead to the use of a nuclear bomb

Saying that Pearl Harbor led to the use of the Bomb is a bit...overstated.

The US was preparing to enter WW2 well before Pearl Harbor. And the reason the Bomb was dropped in Japan (as opposed to on Berlin) is that the Germans surrendered before the Bomb was finished.

Even without Pearl Harbor, if Hitler had been loony enough to declare war on us (he did, by the way - he was hoping Japan would attack the USSR if he "helped them" by declaring war on the USA. Alas for him, the Japanese weren't as stupid as he was) without the attack by Japan, we'd have nuked Germany if the Germans had managed to hold out till late '45....

One armed gunman?

So, according to TFS, one guy with two arms (two armed gunMAN) shows up, gets killed. Along with, presumably someone else, since two people were killed....

They know about your medication (see above).
What they may lack is the matching email address to your name?

They know about my meds because I pretty much have to tell someone to get the prescription filled.

They know my email address since the same people I go to to get the prescription filled have my email address so they can send me reminders that my refills are due.

So, the pharmacy has my prescription history going way back (what, you think I change pharmacies every time I get a new prescription) and my email address. And I still have never gotten any spam advertising drugs.

Note that drug advertising to me wouldn't actually do any good, since I'm not an MD, and am incapable of prescribing drugs to myself (or anyone else). That sort of thing is best aimed at doctors and hypochondriacs (the kind who will nag their doctors about the new drugs they see on TV that sound like they'd be PERFECT for their problems)....

Machines in every form benefit the owners of the means of production, not the worker that works for someone else.

Is that why the average worker is no better off today than they were in 1800?

Damn, you beat me to it!

It's fascinating watching supposedly educated people pining for the good old days when Real Men (tm) were mostly peasants. Sorry guys, automation is what makes things like cars, computers, TVs, refrigerators, fresh fruit in winter, etc. possible....

Let's assume he's managed to live in a world where the subject of cloud storage/backup never once reached the level of awareness.

So, what kind of dolt thinks that the grades are stored on machines in the school's computer lab???

Or was he burning down the lab in a fit or pique because his awesome computer skills weren't enough to deal with the grades being stored on a machine he had no access to?

Recently, I noticed that when I picked up a prescription for a (for me new) medication that's mostly used for one purpose, I suddenly got dozens of spam e-mails wanting to "help" me with a particular diagnosis I don't have. And that's the few that went through the double layer spam filter. It was way too pervasive to be a coincidence.

I've been taking moderately special purpose meds off and on for years (the sorts of things you take when you have a bone marrow transplant).

I have NEVER gotten any spam emails as a result (unless you count that "you really need to refill your prescription since you're about to run out of pills, you dolt!" sort that I get as a reminder from the drugstore)....

I think it is far more likely that the pharmacy sells this information to insurance

So, the pharmacies are selling information on your prescription drugs to...your insurance company?

You remember your insurance company - they're the ones who are paying for your prescription drugs. If the pharmacies are selling your drug information to your insurance companies, the pharmacies have one of the greatest rackets in history - they're managing to sell information that is REQUIRED FOR BILLING to the people paying the bills.

Now that's audacity!

Have you seen our national seal? An eagle with arrows and olive branches. We dictate the terms of peace because we have the weapons to do so.

Great Seal of the US - first used in 1782.

US becomes a world power - 1943, perhaps. An argument could be made for 1942 if you tried real hard. Before that? Requires a rather huge stretch....

The deficit from Clinton's years was due to Republican Congress setting the budget. It was also disappearing by time he left office.

Interesting theory, that.

Oddly enough, a quick check shows that the Democrats controlled Congress during the only part of Clinton's Presidency that the deficit increased.

The deficit began decreasing pretty much as soon as the Republicans took over...

Hard to worry about what happened over a 100 years ago. Had the issue bothered a lot of people, Hawaii wouldn't have voted to join the U.S. in 1959 by 93%.

It should be noted that the vote to join the USA was a popular vote by the Japanese citizens, the Chinese citizens, the Parsee citizens, the White citizens, and the Black citizens. The natives didn't have much say at all, since they are a teeny, tiny fraction of the population....

For those who are interested in such things, racial politics are...unusual (by American standards) there - the Parsees and Chinese are on top, then the Japanese, then the Whites, then the Blacks. The natives are somewhere down below there.

1) A jury-like panel of practitioners to judge obviousness.

It should, perhaps, be noted that a lot of things are obvious AFTER they've been invented.

NO doubt there are some that were also obvious before they were invented too, but it's by no means the same set of things....