No more federally funded energy research, no more federally funded parks, no more federally funded public education, no more federally funded low income housing, no more federally funded roads & bridges.

Individual states are more than capable of managing public education, parks, low income housing, roads, bridges, hurricane warning systems, etc. themselves. The idea that these things won't exist if the federal government doesn't give each state handouts for it is ludicrous.

State and local government is more efficient at managing the true needs of its residents than the federal government.

When the federal government funds these programs, there are strings attached. One glaring example of this is no child left behind. Ask the teachers and school administrators if they think no child left behind is good policy and they'll overwhelmingly agree it detracts from student education, yet it's national policy.

Another example: medical marijuana. The residents of many states have voted to legalize its use for specific purposes, yet the federal government refuses to listen to the voice of the people in these states and continues its crusade against it with force.

When you only listen to half of the man's message and act like you're an expert you're doing yourself and everyone else a disservice.

The simple truth is that D.C is as far out of touch with the rest of the people of this country as the British government was with the colonies. The idea that D.C. knows what we need better than our state and local government doesn't hold water.

He's simply advocating state government over federal government, and I for one agree with it.

Moore's law has applied, and will apply - at least by inference - to all past and future computing paradigms.

The exponential growth trends of price/performance started long before CMOS processes were developed. While Moore's law specifically refers to integrated circuits, the facts remain: exponential growth trends were present in relay-based machines, vacuum tube based machines, transistor based machines (pre-IC), and integrated circuits.

In fact, the exponential growth trends are actually accelerating at an accelerating pace, as we are just now approaching the "knee" in the exponential curve.

The simple truth is today's ICs are manufactured at the nano scale ( 100nm), and will continue to shrink for several more generations of chips.

Before transistor size even begins to approach theoretical limits, new paradigms will emerge to replace current metal-oxide-semiconductor technologies.

We can already see this today. As we approach the limit to two dimensional ICs, we see the new emerging trend of three-dimensional circuits. We see the rumblings in research circles of optical systems at nano-scales. We're just now beginning to scratch the surface of quantum computing.

While Moore didn't invent the exponential, the trends he predicted more than four decades ago will be alive and well throughout the 21st century, even if by inference, as we transition away from CMOS to new, as-of-yet undiscovered paradigms.

To those seriously interested in this field, please consider reading Ray Kurzweil's "The Singularity is Near". You may not agree with everything the man has to say, but the man's data on this subject doesn't lie.

Anecdotal accounts my ass. Fracking contaminates fresh ground water supplies, it IS as simple as that.

When it's something as vital to life as FRESH WATER, it seems reasonable to err on the side of caution, does it not?

The fracking companies have been ordered by US courts to supply fresh water (in trucks that fill giant basins) to the people who's lives they have destroyed with this process. What other evidence do you need?

The majority of fresh water that supplies major US metropolitan areas is contained in a few watersheds. These people ARE going to fuck up OUR fresh water supply for PROFIT.

Get a clue already. When you don't have fresh water to drink, cook with, bathe with, and do your laundry with, it will be too fucking late.

Destroying water sources for energy is a bad trade. These assholes getting rich off it in Washington don't fucking care about you. Get a grip, and stop being a puppet. Fresh water as a resource cannot be replaced. You need it to live. And you're going to sit idly by waiting for 'evidence' that's already out there, but you're too thick to acknowledge.

Make no mistake, this process destroys the environment, and destroys sources of fresh water. Fill in the blanks my friends, connect the dots, and see where we are without fresh water and whether a trade for tiny amounts of energy (in the grand scheme of things) is worth it.

You're missing the point. If this strain is proven to have been created in a lab and doesn't exist in the wild, its release is most definitely a conspiracy, and not a "conspiracy theory".

Journalists writing about the possibility aren't starting conspiracy theories, they're doing investigative journalism, something the world is woefully short on these days.

The intended outcome of writing a piece like this is to report on the possibility. Don't be so quick to dismiss it as crazy "conspiracy theory".

It's also just a conspiracy theory that Baxter released live samples of the H3N2 seasonal flu virus contaminated with H5N1 avian flu in February 2009, right? Oh wait...

http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2009/02/27/8560781.html

Cross-contamination of flu samples destined for the yearly flu vaccination stockpiles with deadly flu strains just an accident? If you think so, do some research into the quarantine procedures they use in facilities where biological research on flu strains is conducted. Unintentional cross contamination doesn't happen.

You can easily turn off this feature of Windows Vista/Windows 7.

Simply disable the "Superfetch" service.

And, if you don't like the indexing service indexing everything on your computer, disable the "Windows Search" service.

In my experience, disabling these services drastically improves performance under Vista and also gives a more Windows XP like experience, since these are two of the major "features" of Vista. Once they're disabled, you'll notice a vast performance improvement.

Looks like Microsoft Management Summit 2009 conference attendees (Apr 27th - May 2nd) might be getting a nice surprise in their swag bags this year.

The download date aligns nicely with the end-of-conference date of May 2nd, with conference attendees likely getting a copy 5-7 days in advance of the download being available to the public!

www.mms-2009.com

This is as much about pushing a reliable 64-bit Windows platform as it is about Redmond's revenue streams.

Big picture, Vista x64, and the upcoming Windows 7 x64, are the platforms MS wants developers developing for. The 64-bit Windows revolution isn't going to happen with XP hanging around in the background. XP x64 was terrible.

I've personally been running Vista x64 for some time and have had no problems. We all know the benefits, especially with CrossFire and SLI setups taking up as much as a GB of the memory address space of 32-bit operating systems. This seems like something the Slashdot crowd would generally be in favor of.

Vista 64 and Windows 7 64 are the future of the Microsoft platform. With Microsoft controlling 87% of the desktop OS market share, the sooner it happens, the better off we are.

When the players change but the policies don't, how can anyone argue that a two party system works, or that there are even two parties?

Discussions of this sort have value as they generally lend themselves to an awareness amongst the participants that the American two-party political system is essentially a good cop/bad cop situation.

Many older educated Americans have known for decades that America is, for all intents and purposes, a one party system. Upon superficial examination it appears to be a two party system, but the will of the people is ignored no matter what party is in the White House. International politics aside, corporate interests dictate the direction of country because they fund the elections.

Talk is cheap. Actions scream.

Dude, copyright infringement is currently a *civil* offense, not a criminal offense. There are many reasonable positions that can be taken when one is accused of copyright infringement that are completely legitimate. The problem here is as such: the MPAA and RIAA are doing everything in their power to make small-time cases of alleged copyright infringement a criminal offense. Why would they do such a thing? Aside from continuing to make money off a flawed 20th century business model which has essentially become a legalized racket, there are other very large benefits. Most notably, enforcement of copyright laws shifts from themselves to the government. Instead of being a civil case, police officers suddenly are in charge of enforcing and arresting copyright offenders, and DAs are in charge of prosecuting offenders. The **AAs no longer need to fund the dragnet. The government is obligated to enforce and uphold the law. The government gets their cut from the offenders, and the RIAA gets their cut as well, with a lower overall overhead, as they no longer have to pay their army of lawyers and book keepers to keep everything strait. If you don't see the flaw in this business model, you need another drink like you need a hole in the head. Civil offenses, to be settled by two private parties, should never become criminal offenses which are policed by the government. Flashback to 1985: Imagine being pulled over by a cop for speeding, him seeing your non-original tape collection sitting in your front seat and taking you in for copyright infringement. That's what they want, wake up and see it for what it is, and say HELL NO.