There is an argument to make that he was intentionally trying to make a martyr out of himself. He could have done what he did without opening up the network closet - which is the most significant charge that was filed against him. Yeah, the overall response was heavy handed without a doubt, but he wasn't exactly rational himself.

Granted, I guess this is a slightly more interesting story than facebook, the movie but still not that great.

Is there a threat (even a theoretical one) of the server going into an infinite loop based upon what you're doing?
It may be that the database engine requires the subquery to break the possibility of a cycle in the code, and sequence the computation.

Take a couple pilz and call me in the morning.

The case of the 60 papers that your link refers to primarily is a case of a researcher in Taiwan. What is it that you want Taiwan to do to him?

And the other top case they mention - the South Korean researcher who apparently published nonsense about a way to make stem cells that didn't actually make stem cells - was from South Korea.:

If you read to the end of the link you gave, it even says

In other words, I would appreciate a clarification of your argument. The privilege bit doesn't parse. If you're trying to suggest that the problem is getting worse for some reason, you haven't supported the notion yet.

Eternal Champignon?

If that was him that mod bombed me on your JE, JC, then I'll just go mod him up for spite.

Unfortunately, very few people who complete a PhD in this country go on to acheive much financially. Even as the chair of a math department his salary was dwarfed by that paid to the football coach of the same university. It is sad that research pays so poorly in this country in spite of its great benefits.

Just had boy #2 a month ago. Life is good.

The insurance industry has owned Washington for some time now. Naturally they would be able to get away with this kind of invasion of privacy with zero backlash. In 2010 the insurance industry started cashing in on their investment by pushing through the ACA bill, but that is only the start of it.

Said Thad Cochran.

The overwhelming majority of CSci graduates that I have known started undergrad by learning Scheme. IIRC that language was actually built for the purpose of teaching the fundamentals of programming. Why was it replaced (beyond the fact that hardly anyone in the real world uses it)?

So, if we all just go on strike at the same time, will that be Occupy Liberty?

I totally expected an article about the GNU Image Manipulation Program, not this Hanksy panksy.

Of course it has a boss

Um... no. Pure communism is incompatible with the entire concept of "boss", unless you're using "boss" as some kind of shorthand for "what society needs".