Actually, I started off generally believing in GW and AGW, but the evidence presented for AGW (not to mention GW) has itself changed my mind.

It doesn't help your case that the word "denier" is used exactly as is the word "heretic".

That was exactly my thought. If his work is used to influence public policy, then everything related to his work should be public, including any relevant emails.

"I don't claim Obama is not an American. I'm just saying that the White House, for reasons of its own, has put up a faked document."

That's pretty much my view. I don't know one way or the other what his legal status is, tho I know of no reason to disbelieve the Hawaii statement of information accuracy. What we do have is an image that was unquestionably altered (as anyone with experience editing compressed or layered images could instantly see), rather than a pristine copy. I lost interest after that and if anything else came to light, it's missed me.

And the one big reason it matters is because you can't prosecute a non-citizen for treason, in the event.

As to the rest of this thread, looks like you've encountered the slashdot equivalent of the UFF. :(

The trouble is, we may in the future discover that the sequenced DNA does not suffice. Or that there's an error. If we don't have reference material, we can't fix any such errors, or even discover them in the first place.

This is kinda like deciding a project is no longer needed, so instead of archiving it, you compile one last binary, then destroy all the source code.

I wonder if any of the milder diseases we see are actually attenuated or mutated smallpox, still in the wild.

Well, I've got my smallpox vax scar... nowadays that's how you ID an old fogie!

Considering all the other stuff Dubai has built, how does this mall rate more than a passing mention?

Perhaps more to the point,

http://apps.microsoft.com/wind...

tells us to "Get Windows 8.1 to run this app"

That's an interesting insight. I suppose the logic is that you don't want to plug it into the wall to prove it's a working device, because OMG that might utilize the higher current to set off a bomb. (I see no reason why internal batteries couldn't do the same job, with a lot more control at that, but, TSA logic.)

I wonder how they'd respond to my laptop, which is old enough that the battery is entirely dead, and it's not worth spending $150 to replace a battery in a laptop now worth about $50. It works fine when plugged into the wall, and not at all otherwise. (When I do drag it around, I also take an extension cord.)

Thanks to the plea bargain system, the conviction rate already hovers in the 96% range, at least for the jurisdictions I know about (Los Angeles County for one).

That's an excellent idea! What happens to people who snoop above their clearance, hmmmm?

[Please, ghod, don't just give them a higher security clearance.]

Dogs tend to home in on galvanic reactions and electronics even without training; I natter on about this somewhat above. This is why folks often learn to not leave their keyfob lying on the coffee table.

Now I'm wondering about that in light of the freedom of association. Isn't the gov't compelling membership in a prescribed gun club as a condition of exercising your 2nd Amendment rights?

Remembering that in the era cited, a "woman" was "a girl who had reached menarche", ie. around age 13.

[I don't recall if Jewish law has anything to say about age]

And it would only take once for a bright dog to connect "scent of activated charcoal" with "target". They DO make that sort of association.

As to the various things hunters attempt to disguise their scent, I'm too lazy to look for it right now but I recall seeing a study on the effectiveness of scent-disguising potions and amulets, and the conclusion was that they accomplish about the same as any magical potion or amulet.

See also above where I talk about distinguishing one scent from many, as dogs do all the time anyway.

The fallacy is that the smell of dirty diapers will overwhelm and disguise the scent of the target. The truth is that dogs with good noses (which not all have) are quite capable of sorting out different scents from a multitude (in fact they do this every time they follow ANY scent, since almost everything in the world HAS a scent), and merely covering up the target scent is usually insufficient. Also, they can detect a mere handful of molecules, what any object might naturally ablate. Furthermore, experienced dogs learn that if you lose one scent, you follow an associated scent, in this case the foot track or bodyscent track of the person who hid the bagged target.

I used to live where some prior resident had thrown beer cans around the front yard, but across the years two feet of dirt had blown in over 'em (very fine dirt, very densely packed). I was mystified by the deep narrow holes my dogs were digging, til I realised the goal was an aluminum can, two feet down, which the dogs evidently scented and targeted. (Dogs tend to home in on galvanic reactions and electronics in general, even without training. This is why keyfobs are a fave chewtarget.)

[Pro dog trainer here]