> I dunno if we should mandate it on men. Then again, I don't think it should be mandated for women either, at least not without parental consent to opt in.

The problem with that approach is that the anti-vaccination kooks don't just make themselves and each other sick, they incubate diseases that affect everyone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_controversy
http://www.skepdic.com/antivaccination.html

The real issue here is that NBC Universal started a contest in the schools, and created a "front" to divert everyone's attention from the fact that this is a corporately-sponsored contest, where the only winners will be those who agree with the corporation's goals.

That's dishonest and this is why this contest is seen as "evil." Presumably NBC Universal will benefit from a whole bunch of free Public Service Announcements made by these people who were duped into thinking this contest was honest.

With respect to piracy, the real danger to the studios is not in the home user burning a copy of a DVD. The real danger is from organized criminals who will literally pull up to a duplication facility loading dock with a semitrailer and steal the duplication apparatus to make copies from the original master disc. Or the Chinese government officials, sworn Party members all -- and "untouchable" because of that -- who reverse-engineer the original master and crank out millions of copies that can undersell the official studio version (because they're not paying the studio). Go down to Chinatown or Canal Street in NYC and you'll see these pirated copies all over. And these illegal copies often come out before the official release date from the studios.

But now, the studios see the writing on the wall. DVD player-recorders did not have "sufficient" copy protection built in, so home "piracy" was fairly simple. So the studios all refused to allow for a high definition system without "sufficient" "safeguards." And the studios were so intransigent that we did not have a standard for high-definition DVDs until very recently. Meanwhile, the Internet has gotten faster (despite the fact that cable and telco companies have done everything they can to not increase speeds in the United States because they like collecting money without needing to create better infrastructure) and most people will simply bypass the new Blu-Ray standard by acquiring their media through electronic delivery, instead of by buying some soon-to-be obsolete player and the media it plays.

So all of the studios' dreams of being able to lock down their content (with Blu-Ray) have been for naught. Home hard drives are big enough to contain many high-definition films and consumers can build their own libraries of the films they like without needing to rip (and bypass copy "protection" schemes) from discs. Delivery is now digital and over the Internet. DVD stores are going the way of the record store. And companies like Apple and Netflix will be the distribution channel and the studios don't control them. These studio executives all sit around their offices and meeting rooms and worry about Mom and Pop, Timmy and Mary sharing their movies with their friends who have not paid for the movie.

But the real threat is elsewhere. Right now, in Romania, Ukraine, Russia or China, there is an organized criminal who has hacked into their computer system where the unprotected film is sitting. And they are downloading everything on the computer they have hacked into. And I would not be surprised that the computer in question is actually editing the studio's film. This criminal will certainly be able to release the film as soon as it hits the theatres to consumers as pirated downloads.

So what NBC Universal is trying to do here is to find a way to get Mom, Pop, Timmy and Mary to not share their movies with Dick and Jane across the street.

Pathetic.

As long as we can get Nimoy to do the voice work I'm down.

> It's also why they didn't put Hitler in, as to many people he's just a misunderstood guy who tried to do his best against the forces of Zionist-Communism.

Well, that and he was a Roman Catholic, so it would weaken the point they were trying to make. The superior morality of religion is one of the few arguments that cannot be successfully Godwin'd. =)

It also teaches that if a man rapes a woman, he has committed a property crime against her father and will be forced to marry her as part of her punishment.
Are you really sure these are the old books you want to use?

> Discarding the moral teachings that have been handed down over thousands of years is equally ridiculous.

It's not ridiculous; moral philosophy has been advancing since the bronze age, just like science. There's a reason that religions founded in that era endorse slavery, regard women as property, and practice scapegoating, to name just a few items; they are only as moral, could only possibly be as moral, as the men who founded them were. We can do better today.

> as a practicing physician before the Feds got involved he never saw a patient left to die

Anecdotal evidence is anecdotal, but even so, that can't POSSIBLY be true. I'm only 32 and two people close to me have died because of an inability to afford treatment; one a few years back from melanoma and one just last week from breast cancer.

I suppose it's possible that Ron Paul managed to work as a physician and never notice the poor dying all around him, but is that really the most likely explanation?

> the generally accepted definitions do not preclude the use of hard disks

And THAT, if anything, is what is killing netbooks.

When Asus came out with the EeePC 701, it was something truly different; 9" body (only a 7" display in that first model), SSD only, cheap. It had Linux, but even being the zealot that I am I don't consider that a requirement for a netbook. The 9xx series (full 9" display, same size body) was the pinnacle of netbook evolution from my point of view. (Arguably surpassed by the Asus T91MT, but that one had a crappy GPU which wasn't useful in Linux).

Nowadays, there are "netbooks" up to 12" in size, you almost can't find a 9" anymore, and SSD are uncommon. Basically, the term "netbook" has come to just mean "crappy laptop".

All of these things have absolutely nothing to do with Bitcoin itself. This is all in relation to a hacked website that helps people exchange Bitcoin for USD. Bitcoin is every bit as secure as it ever was.

> it is not trivial to take the long road trips into account

It is *kinda* trivial. ;) Back when I lived in dorms and then apartments, I kept a minivan because I had to move frequently, and needed the cargo room. Shortly after I bought a home, my van died and I was shopping for a vehicle. A week or so into the process it occurred to me that I no longer required moving capacity, so I was able to buy an ultra-compact and save buckets of money and fuel. Once a year or so if I find a piece of furniture or other large thing I need to move, and I rent a U-Haul truck.

Same logic applies to battery electrics; I make about two trips per year that are out of range of, say, a Nissan Leaf. I've run the numbers and I come out _way, waaaayy_ ahead by commuting with the Leaf and renting a Yaris or a Civic or something twice a year. A lot of communities are starting up car-sharing systems for an even more flexible and lower cost option.