That should be encouraging. In another 100 years of no women the problem should naturally fix itself.

Yeah, beat 'em over the head with the LAW that'll show 'em.

Well mostly because it really doesn't take much talent to be a janitor or a bus driver (plumber - well that takes a certain amount of skill but those guys also make pretty good money), whereas the other, requires a certain gift that few people have. Additionally, those occupations don't really have a huge amount of risk. If you are a janitor and can empty a trash can and mop the floor, you can get a job and make enough money to get by. Lots of people need your services. It's not like the music industry where success is so fickle and based largely on luck. I've been listening to David Lowery since I was in high school. He's incredibly talented, and someone of his stature ought to be able to make a living selling music. If he (and others like him) can't do that you will see the further decline of music that has been so prevalent over the past decade. So in a nutshell, we don't really need it, but it helps if you love good music and would like to continue to see fresh ideas come to fruition.

Coming from the perspective of directly working on the critical infrastructure I can say he's both right and wrong. There is certainly plenty to worry about. The critical infrastructure is being attacked everyday (mostly by nation states). However, the political solutions really do nothing to resolve the issue. It's mostly like he said about making money for the vendors selling "solutions", and government agencies. In our case, we are required (by federal regulations) to share data with other utilities necessitating a connection from our internal control systems to the outside world. The government has made all of these rules that we must comply with. Many of them make sense like patching the OS and third party software, having backups in place, malware prevention, monitoring equipment, etc. However, if we were to have something like stuxnet that was below the radar and sat there for years none of that would be much help, and that's really the most likely scenario. For now at least the government seems more interested in fining companies than they are ensuring their security. These fines cannot be recovered from rate payers, but how long before companies throw in the towel because they can't make a profit anymore? How long before shareholders dump their stock and move on to something more lucrative? When that happens who provides water, electricity, gas service, etc? It's pretty scary when you think about it.

How might that power be abused. Setting aside partisan politics for a moment I can't see how anyone would think this is a good idea. Even if the goal is to intercept terrorist communications (which sounds more like a dubious excuse than an explanation), what's to stop the terrorists from using end to end encryption?

You just noticed that, did ya? Slashdot really has become less news for nerds and more of a left wing circle jerk.

What a sad and pitiful world we live in when it's more beneficial to rely on the media rather than the weapon of your choosing to fight your battles.

Ewwww

I knew there was a reason I didn't like FarmVille. I just hadn't quite put my finger on it til now.

I object to the idea of burning the quran, not because I'm a muslim, or find any benefit in the book at all. I just don't see how doing that is going to foster anything but more hatred. I mean really, what do you accomplish by burning a book that means nothing to you, and is sacred to someone else? Is that going to change their minds? Doubtful. Are they going to listen to what you have to say or take you seriously going forward? Probably not. Are you any better off? I don't see how.

However, as much as I disagree with what they are doing cutting off their web site is just as idiotic. I find it ironic that burning a book would be tantimount to suppressing the information contained in it, and yet out of distain for that they would cut off their web site to suppress the information it contains. Supressing information is what someone does when they don't have a legitimate argument against what is being said. Kind of like folks who mod people down because they disagree with their message, and don't have a strong enough argument to counter with.

I thought California was broke??? This must be their idea of fiscal responsibility.

Sure it does. Atheists stake their eternal future on the presumption that God does not exist. They live their whole lives doing what they want, and rejecting the concept that there could be anyone or anything greater than themselves. If they are wrong, and there turns out to be a judgement day they will spend eternity burning in hell. That takes a great deal of faith (or ignorance take your pick).

Well, yes, that and they have a penchant for blowing themselves up.

I'm not sure I'd hang my hat on that. As the parent suggests there have been plenty of instances that man thought he had the answer only to discover that he wasn't just a little wrong, but flat out completely incorrect (see flat earth). Carbon dating the same artifact can return results that vary by 100,000's of years. That's not exactly a solid science, and if we're going to use those methods to say things like the earth is billions of years old; ergo the Bible is factually incorrect I'm going to stand up and call bs. Biblical truth has been handed down for over 2000 years. In the last 2000 years how many times have scientists changed their mind about what they know to be true? Sorry, I have more faith in God than I do in man. But then I don't have a vested interest in disproving His existence.

It's amazing how often doctors would rather shove medication down someone's throat than deal with the root issue. It's ADHD now, but back when my wife was a teen it was manic depression. For years they gave her injections, and pills which actually made things worse (caused her to fall asleep in class, too lethargic to do homework, etc). She swore for years she needed medication and just needed to find "the one that works for what I have." After 10 years she finally gave up and started trying to control it herself. She can function just fine when she's doing what she wants, but apart from that she gets moody, irritable, or overly sleepy. She likes to work, so when she was working she was successful, and did just fine (without medication). Dealing with the kids, cleaning the house, etc. is not really her bag, so she can read a book, play her games, watch TV, or yell and scream until she gets back to doing what she wants. Gee, doesn't everyone want to do what they want and have no responsibility. That's not a medical condition it's failure to grow up. The only condition she has is that she is a spoiled brat. Had the "doctors" addressed that issue way back when, her and I both would have been better off.