It means "I'm safe for now, but I can't let go!"
It's like the old prank with the bucket of water held on the ceiling with a broom, but deadly.

"It is wrong, blasphemous and sinful for you to suggest, imply or help other people come to the conclusion that the US government killed three thousand of it's own citizens."

Tucker Carlson

"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win."
Mahatma Gandhi

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial-congress complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

Top 25 Censored Stories of 2007: "Not worth reading"!

If you question the official conspiracy theory, you're crazy crazy crazy! The DOD always tells the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, after all.

Here's a video that is "not worth" watching: Demolition expert Danny Jowenko explains how the WTC7 was destroyed by professionals, and expresses surprise and disbelief when he's told the collapse was on the same day as the towers.
This video has eyewitnesses from the ground, firefighters involved in the rescue, saying they heard the detonation of the charges(mpg, no sound) before the collapse.

This picture shows how much damage a building can sustain from the Twin Tower debris without collapsing.
Even a gash almost identical to the one pictured in a 2005 official release did not bring this building down (notice the boarded windows).

I often hear people say that humans are no longer subject to natural selection.
They mention hospitals, cripples being taken care of, prenatal care, and they ignore the fact that two thirds of the people of this world have no access to these luxuries.

Not only is most of the population of the earth still dying young from malaria, tigers, hippos, and all manners of natural disasters, but we are reminded regularly that people in the industrial nations die everyday from man made predators. In 1830, William Huskisson ushered in a brave new world of everyday deadliness. I still see rail safety campaign posters, aimed at kids, in the 21st century.

Even medical science isn't saving people indiscriminatly of their genetic heritage. Most of the healing is left to the patient's body, and the treatment themselves work better on some and not as well on others: Survival of the easiest to treat.

Human evolution hasn't stopped: We aren't mighty enough to rise above natural selection.

There's this troll that tried to pick on me for being in mensa (which I'm not, but he's dumb, so he assumed).
I fed him some poisoned replies ;-)

From his insistant trolling, I got proof positive that his attacks on the character of the person he wrongly assumed I was were not an execptional bout of misdirected anger from a human being, but proof positive of a under-bridge dweller, as well a set of data providing a posting pattern for that individual.

By an amazing coincidence, right after that troll started eating the scraps I left for it, I suddenly started getting regular AC trolling.
If I reply to those, the AC troll comes back to check and keeps on trolling... always in the same timeframe as all the trolling from the mensa-assuming moron! What a coinkidink! I mean, he clicked "post as anonymous coward", so I have no way of knowing who wrote those!

Hehehe, trolls are so dumb :)

America [for Amerigo Vespucci], the lands of the Western Hemisphere--North America, Central (or Middle) America, and South America. The world map published in 1507 by Martin Waldseemüller is the first known cartographic use of the name. In English, America and American are frequently used to refer only to the United States.

Source: The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

You wouldn't believe the long winded bullshit people will come up with to cover up their ignorance of this simple fact.

Re:take it for what it is., posted to CIA Secretly Reclassifying Documents, has been moderated Interesting (+1).
It is currently scored Interesting (2).

moderated Interesting (+1).
It is currently scored Interesting (3).

moderated Interesting (+1).
It is currently scored Interesting (4).

moderated Interesting (+1).
It is currently scored Interesting (5).

moderated Flamebait (-1).
It is currently scored Interesting (4).

moderated Interesting (+1).
It is currently scored Interesting (5).

Flamebait??

"Lamarck was the first man whose conclusions on the subject excited much attention. This justly celebrated naturalist first published his views in 1801. . . he first did the eminent service of arousing attention to the probability of all changes in the organic, as well as in the inorganic world, being the result of law, and not of miraculous interposition."

[...]

In 1999 a group of religious fundamentalists won the election to the Kansas State Board of Education and tried to introduce creationism into the state's classrooms. They wanted to delete references to radiocarbon dating, continental drift and the fossil record from the education standards. In 2001 more-temperate forces prevailed in elections, but the anti-evolutionists garnered a 6-4 majority again in November 2004. Now Intelligent Design (ID) theory is their anti-evolution tool of choice.

Which one would you prefer? JonKatz or Roland Piquepaille?

Try for yourself - search for "roland" and "jonkatz" in the slashdot search. Read a few of their submissions.

Let's look at their general submission style:
Jon - Was into the culture-smacks-into-technology side of things. Did tend to sometimes distort (or completely mangle) the facts, but most stories seemed to cause some genuine discussion.

Roland - Seems to be the cut'n'paster of the century. Every story so far points to his website (Roland's Technology Trends) for "more info", which is normally a few paragraphs from another linked article, with filler such as "and as you can see from the next paragraph, it's very interesting".

Now, I wouldn't have a problem with this, but he sells advertising on his site. I can deal with google adwords (I suppose), but then I see a box on the side spouting:

Advertisers
Reach the tech crowd!
This blog focuses on new technologies and how they will affect our lives.

This is the place to reach all these technology-savvy readers and advertise your most innovative products or services.

So, Roland pretty much uses slashdot to drive people to his site. If all he did was link to the original site (the one his blog links to) in his slashdot submission I wouldn't mind. But linking back to your site to basically get your hits up? I don't like it. It feels wrong. If I want the latest technology trends, I look at gizmodo, or techdirt. I don't need people decreasing the signal-to-noise ratio at slashdot for their own gain. If his blog was full of insightful commentary and facts from several different places, all carefully put together to have some real value, then I wouldn't feel as cheated everytime I accidently click through.

To sum up? Three words:
Bring back JonKatz.

At least his submissions had some content.

Amongst all the other things I've been doing, I keep thinking about building an electric car. Battery technology is certainly heading in the right direction - a decent set of thundersky li-ion batteries are good for 12kWhr for a hundred and fifty kilos. 12kWhr, at an "average to crap" efficiency of 350Whr/mile gives 35 or so miles..... which is enough to get me to work and back every day on half a charge. It's a damn shame it'd cost me nearly six grand in batteries. That, and four or five thousand for a decent sized motor and controller. 12000 bucks is a whole lot of money to try and recoup in fuel savings.

But it *would* be cool. Maybe I'll scale down a bit and build an electric harley. That'd be a little more affordable. Then I can grow a beard and a pot belly, wear some black leather and tatts, and cruise silently up behind people and scare the bejeezus out of them. Oh, and I guess I'll have to have some skanky biker chicks too.

Me and my mid-life crisis, we're all set :-)

So, I get an email from my old boss from a few jobs (and years) back. The usual pleasantries, how's things , etc. Oh, and perhaps I could make another cutter speed sampling device? No-one there has any idea about how to make one, it seems.

Well, geez, I dunno. I mean, I'm flattered that he got in touch and all. But things went horribly wrong in that job after a while. Sure, the first few years were great. But then, there was this slow, inescapable slide downhill. I lost the work car. I ended up working 70 hour weeks sometimes. And then there was the very poor handling of two sexual harassment complaints.

I will point out that, for the record, both complainants when quizzed seperately by HR, did not want to take any action. I apologised to both of them a couple of days after each incident. And all parties were a little embarrassed by the whole thing, and were willing to just let it all go. It was my misunderstanding of the difference between "workplace acquaintance" and "friend" that got me in the awkward position. Trying to be friendly, hell, I got it wrong. I'm stuck with being socially retarded, I guess.

Looking at it now, I suppose that the HR manager was just lousy at being diplomatic. But the implications and conclusions that she made about the two complaints were quite shattering. The fact that it was three months after the second incident didn't help. So much for water under the bridge and all that. I suppose that was the end of the line for me. A few months after that, I realised that I didn't want to be there anymore and my heart just wasn't in it. Oh, it was all sad farewells and all that, but I was glad to go.

And now here I am, two years after I left. Trying to decide whether to help out a company that caused possibly one of the more stressful events in my life. There's the crux of the matter though. Individually I'd help any one of them, it's the dilbert-esque Company that I'd rather just say "Fuck you" to.

My thoughts so far are to :
(a) help them out, but to screw the Company for every last cent I can.
(b) help them out, out of the kindness of my heart, and a nominal consulting fee.
(c) tell them to go get fucked.

Let's face it, my life hasn't been ruined. Leaving that job was probably one of the best decisions I made - I've now got a job with twice the pay and half the hours and I enjoy it. But there's still a heap of bad memories there. I've re-read my work diary from around that period, and I'm obviously nowhere near as upset about it as I was then. Obviously I still haven't let go of it though.

I'm leaning for (b) - maybe I'll learn to let go and get some good Karma for the next life.

I posted something in reply to someone today about the captcha required for posting, and I thought it was rather good. An edited version follows :

From "The CmdrTaco unabridged SlashDot preachings" (second edition, p476):

"Those with Karma of 'Excellent' status can post without the use of the captcha - for yea, they have proved their faith, and suffered many hardships, and trials, and aggravations, and duplicate articles, bearing them all with rare good humour, and much insightful posting, with many a witty comment. And lo! Such is their wisdom that the Karma Bonus, that most hallowed of rewards, is bestowed upon them, so that their words are writ large above the mundane postings, and can continue to enrich and inspire even the lowliest Coward. Those who possess Excellent Karma truly have been justly rewarded, and may they forever bask in the glory of that which is the New Slashdot.

For certainly, it is a New Slashdot - The crapflooding hath been lowered a significant amount, and for this, there was much rejoicing. And great was the wailing and the gnashing of teeth of the crapflooders, for they were forced to take their childlike pursuits elsewhere, leaving the hallowed moderators free to perform their sacred duty without the incessant selection of the -1, troll."

Hmm. Perhaps I should redo the whole FAQ in a King-James style.

I was born in America.
But I am not an American.

I still love the U.S.A.
I love southern hospitality. I love giant fireworks and novelty shops right next to a state border.
I love New York (once you get used to the smell). I love the fact that one of it's strongest symbol is French-made.
I love the space program: It's not unique, but it's got style.
I love Harley Davidson bikes, though I usually ride japanese bikes: They're more practical.
And I love Walt Disney and his buddies, and I love Hollywood. I also hate Hollywood, but that's life for you.