"Zombies. Hari Seldon saw this coming..." -- Salvor Hardin, Foundation (Isaac Asimov) (Upon encountering a zombie)

The hypothetical situation with Bob the bomber and Sam the sharpshooter actually illustrates the point nicely. The fact that its come down to Sam or Bob committing violence means that negotiating and other non-violent tactics have failed. In other words, the people running the show did not have the competence required to defuse the situation so its come down to snipe or explodey.

THIS

I believe this is why I never became a smoker or even had an interest in trying pot while I was a teen. My parent were very open and didn't treat me like I was stupid. By having open discussions about things instead of totalitarian rules ("BECAUSE I SAID SO!") it removes the "rebellion factor". Now I feel sorry for all of my friends that are hooked and are struggling with quiting. Thanks Mom & Dad! :D

Much along the same lines, I've always wondered why (at least in Washington State) the age of consent is 16, but you have to be 18 to buy porn.

So what? You can have sex, you just can't look at it? Is a 16-17 year old only allowed to have sex with a blind folder on?

Try installing the Dropline Neu! icon set via synaptic/apt. I can't stand the default icons!

Having just wiped my drive and installed Jaunty 64-bit, I have to say this release feels to me anything but slick. My alarm clock software (alarm-clock) freezes the GUI (except for the mouse cursor). Remote Desktop (vino) won't send screen updates if you're using closed source nvidia drivers + compiz. Maybe if I reinstall and go 32-bit instead of 64 some of my issues my go away. However, Ubuntu recommends you install the 64-bit version unless you have a good reason not to.

Looks like I might have "good reasons".

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE Ubuntu. However, as someone that uses and supports Mac OS X and XP as well as Ubuntu on a daily basis, I can tell you that "slick" is not the word to describe this release. Come on, guys! Some of these bugs have been open for months!

Oh well, I guess I'll never be able to get rid of my XP partition anyways. At least, not until Propellerheads, Ableton, and Native Instruments port their respective audio software packages to linux, which should happen sometime between now and when the private key for signing Xbox 360 games is publicly factored out. :)

Sorry... though I appreciate VLC, I think its far from the best media player. My vote would go to the numerous incarnation of MPlayer. From Xbox Media Center to SMPlayer on Linux and Windows to MPlayer OSX Extended on Mac OS X, MPlayer has always been able to play whatever weird codec or container I toss at it. Meanwhile, every time I've attempted to use VLC (mainly on OS X) I've become frustrated by hangs and crashes... Maybe I'll hate this version a little less?

How to say this politely...

STFU!

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/britain-records-18-fall-in-gun-deaths-1232069.html

[...]Most of the 42 gun-related deaths last year took place in London, the West Midlands, Manchester or Merseyside, with swathes of the country recording no homicides, suicides or accidental deaths from firearms[...]

http://webapp.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate10_sy.html
2005 CDC Statistics for firearm related deaths in the US (latest that are available):
Number of Deaths: 30,694

Now, tell me again how gun control does nothing to prevent crime?

That "Factual C" should be "Factual Correction" *facepalm*

Factual C It is not "very cold in space". In fact, depending on your point of view, the radiation can make it quite 'hot'. Temperature is the kinetic vibration of matter. Its just there's not a lot of matter to vibrate in the void. What we often perceive as the effects of the tempurature of space, is actually the near vacuum.

"There is no dark side of the moon, really. Matter of fact, its all dark. Its the sun that makes it light..."