This guy is an inspiration when dealing with the scammers:

Best Prank Call Ever by Tom Mabe: http://youtu.be/rBfsdkGeMc8

That'd be true if we all had choice.

'Round here (Upstate NY), we're realistically limited to two ISPs. Verizon and Time Warner. Most of the area doesn't have access to FIOS, either... I'm talking about Verizon DSL. Neither seems to be looking to change the status quo. Sure, I'd be pissed if one or both were dropped by Netflix, but I can't switch to anyone else.

My work involves entering people's homes and working in relatively close contact with them. There's a special level of Hell reserved for folks in my position who go to work sick.

So no, I stay home when I'm sick.

I've been diagnosed Type 1 Brugada's Syndrome (http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/163751-overview , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brugada_syndrome ). In my case, the trigger is a high fever, which was brought on by the flu.

I don't have much sympathy for the rest of the world if I get sick and become feverish. I'll take my aspirin and avoid cardiac arrest, thank you very much. Selfish, maybe. I'm not quite ready to find out what's on the other side of that line.

Those poor folk that have the spontaneously triggered type of Brugada's have my sympathy instead. Just dropping dead spontaneously isn't my preferred way to go.

By classifying the affected as "pining for the fjords"?

Not according to the FAA (I hear that CASA in Australia is updating the reg's regarding "dark night flying", so things might be different outside the US).

There is no requirement for a visible horizon when flying VFR at night. Please reference VFR Weather Minimums. Flying anywhere near those minimums is crazy as far as I care, as it's really easy to progress into IFR conditions.

Regardless of whether it's legally VFR or not, I'd feel much more comfortable being IFR rated in those conditions. I'd want the option to call in for a pop-up IFR clearance if the weather deteriorated. The limits I place personally are much more stringent than the FAA reg's, seein' as I'm a low hour "strictly for the hobby and love of flying" pilot.

What ^ he said.

I've flown VFR on a dark night with no visible horizon. It's an unsettling feeling when there's a lit road in the distance, at an angle to the real horizon. Your eyes naturally attune to the road, and tell your brain the aircraft is banking. Your inner ear says you're level. After a few moments, that part of your brain that handles balance starts to freak out and throw its hands up in disgust with the conflicting information.

It takes willpower to trust that the artificial horizon on the attitude indicator is indeed correct, despite that voice in the back of your head whispering that it could be broken and you should trust your eyes instead.

Spend some time around the Capital District of New York. PCB is a household term around here, referring to polychlorinated biphenyls. GE has been dredging the Hudson, cleaning up PCBs: http://www.hudsondredging.com/. There's been concerns regarding the level of the chemical in the Mohawk River, as well.

I had a neighbor a while back that used "F*$% Off", then encrypted it with 64 WEP.

Someone (who shall forever remain nameless) "hacked" it, accessed the configuration page via the default credentials, then renamed it "Not polite to swear in public". Shortly thereafter, the router went down and its SSID hidden.

Meh. He knows someone will retaliate, and it'll end up wiping out enough citizens to significantly hurt the corporate base of power in the U.S. If a significant portion of the population is dead, we can't exactly go out and buy stuff, can we?

And then you're party to this nonsense. Maybe you can sleep with that on your conscience. I know I can't. Knowing I'd be putting my company at risk by not complying with the order (and thus all of my employees) would make it a hard decision. I suppose it's a good thing I'm not running the show, because I'd still stand up and be civilly disobedient.

"I should think not.... the purpose of prisons is to contain and reform criminals into productive citizens. If anything, I should expect the wrongly imprisoned to emerge a more god-fearing more moral person than they were when they got put in there by mistake."

I think you need to step into a prison. I have family who work in correctional facilities, and their opinion is the opposite of yours. Methinks you're looking through rose-tinted glasses.

"Why did Martin lay wait in ambush?"

We don't know that he did. Zimmerman says he did. Martin can't exactly defend himself. There are no third party witnesses detailing the beginning of the assault.

And therein lies the problem. There's not enough evidence to say either way, and there's that "Reasonable Doubt" issue that the jury has to worry about.

Personally, I believe that Zimmerman created the situation, and should lie at fault. That may not be enough to convict in a criminal trial, but I hope the likely civil trial nails the guy to the wall.

"The fact that the program is actually not even really that bad"

That's not a fact. That's your opinion.

My opinion is that the program violates the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, usually considered the highest law of the land. It's a touchy subject ("protect the citizens from the terrorists" versus our fundamental right to privacy), which is why I suspect the Judicial branch doesn't want to touch the subject with a ten foot pole, tossing out the earlier lawsuits on a technicality and refusing to make a decision on them.

I'd also argue that it's the responsibility of citizens and any member of government to actively resist any program that violates the U.S. Constitution. Blowing the whistle is certainly an action of actively resisting. If that makes him a criminal, then there's something wrong with the law.

The best part is when he's arguing with himself. Don't know who he is, don't care to know, either. Anybody who argues with himself (sometimes vehemently) is not a guy to be taken lightly.