Comment: Political dissidents? (Score 1) 153
If this isn't being blown out of proportion much, then the worst potential consequence I've thought of so far is political dissidents having their network exposed.
Verizon sponsors pro-mountain top removal rally
Submitted
by
AbyssWyrm
AbyssWyrm writes "For some months a friend of mine has been involved in protests of Mountaintop removal mining for coal in the Appalachians, a process which protestors claim is unsustainable, ungreen and directly threatening the local communities. Tree-sitting protestors have successfully halted blasts for days at a time. So Massey Energy decides to fight grassroots with grassroots by holding their Friends of America Rally, featuring speeches and performances by such friends of America as Sean Hannity, Hank Williams Jr., and several other country music singing looking guys I haven't heard of.
Of interest is that the sponsor list includes our friends Verizon Wireless, despite its greenwashing efforts. Author Jeff Biggers writes, 'Do 87 million Verizon Wireless customers, stockholders, and its Public Policy Development and Corporate Responsibility department know that their company is a co-sponsor of next week's climate-change-denying union-busting pro-mountaintop removal rally organized by Massey Energy in Logan, West Virginia? . . . Does the Environmental Defense Fund, which recognized Verizon's Green Initiatives--to save energy, support solar and other renewable energy sources, and lower its greenhouse gas emissions--know that Verizon Wireless is sponsoring the featured speaker, Lord Christopher Monckton, a former science adviser to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who is one of the most infamous global warming-deniers?'
Being at least a moderate environmentalist and activist, I am tempted to call Verizon and threaten to cancel my subscription, but presumably the "competition" is not much better."
Of interest is that the sponsor list includes our friends Verizon Wireless, despite its greenwashing efforts. Author Jeff Biggers writes, 'Do 87 million Verizon Wireless customers, stockholders, and its Public Policy Development and Corporate Responsibility department know that their company is a co-sponsor of next week's climate-change-denying union-busting pro-mountaintop removal rally organized by Massey Energy in Logan, West Virginia? . . . Does the Environmental Defense Fund, which recognized Verizon's Green Initiatives--to save energy, support solar and other renewable energy sources, and lower its greenhouse gas emissions--know that Verizon Wireless is sponsoring the featured speaker, Lord Christopher Monckton, a former science adviser to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who is one of the most infamous global warming-deniers?'
Being at least a moderate environmentalist and activist, I am tempted to call Verizon and threaten to cancel my subscription, but presumably the "competition" is not much better."
Cloud-making ships to reduce global warming->
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by
AbyssWyrm
AbyssWyrm writes "According to The Telegraph, rival American and British scientists propose a plan to create a squadron of wind-powered ships that would patrol the oceans, turning seawater into white clouds capable of reflecting the sun's rays. Unlike many so-called geoengineering solutions to the problem of global warming, some groups find this solution to be both effective and very cost-effective. According to the Copenhagen Consensus Centre, a think-tank which advises governments on how to spend aid money, the ships would cost $9 billion to test and launch over the next 25 years. Bjorn Lomborg, director of the think tank, will host a conference in Washington next month to discuss with a panel of Nobel laureates the most effective solution.
Lomborg states that "We need to have a debate about all of the options, not just the politically correct one of reducing CO2.""
Link to Original Source
Lomborg states that "We need to have a debate about all of the options, not just the politically correct one of reducing CO2.""
Link to Original Source
Human sperm produced in the laboratory-> 1
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by
duh P3rf3ss3r
duh P3rf3ss3r writes "The BBC is carrying a report from a team of researchers at Newcastle University who claim to have developed the first "artificial" human sperm from stem cells. The research, reported in the journal Stem Cells and Development involved selecting meristematic germ cells from a human embryonic stem cell culture and inducing meiosis, thus producing a haploid gamete. The authors claim that the resulting sperm are fully formed, mature, human sperm cells but the announcement has been greeted with mixed reaction from colleagues who claim the procedure is ethically questionable and that the gametes produced are of inferior levels of maturation."
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
Pandora no longer completely free
Submitted
by
AbyssWyrm
AbyssWyrm writes "Today, I received an email (alternatively, see the blog) from Tim Westergren, the founder of Pandora, informing me that Pandora will no longer free for all users. Instead, it will be really cheap — for those with a free account, there will be a cap of 40 hours per month, and a user may pay a one-time fee of $0.99 to resume listening to music unlimited for a month. According to the blog entry, this will affect the top 10% of listeners.
Certainly not a bad deal considering the price, and I suspect that Pandora is one of few free internet resources whose users are loyal enough to pay a small fee to keep it afloat. Hopefully this does not become a slippery slope."
Certainly not a bad deal considering the price, and I suspect that Pandora is one of few free internet resources whose users are loyal enough to pay a small fee to keep it afloat. Hopefully this does not become a slippery slope."
Paid subscriptions for music streaming
Submitted
by
AbyssWyrm
AbyssWyrm writes "I stream music primarily on Pandora and imeem, which include links to iTunes and amazon mp3 in various places and a surplus of ads encouraging me to try out Microsoft's Zune Pass. When I googled Zune Pass I found this article that reports that napster offers a similar service for a third of the price. imeem is great but there are a lot of artists I want to listen to more that are not available. Despite the ludicrousness of the RIAA's anti-piracy campaign and the ubiquity and ease of illegal downloads, I do have a bias towards doing things the legal way, and now that there are reasonable business models and price plans available, I would not mind paying some money on a monthly or sporadic basis in exchange for the ability to stream or download lots of music per dollar.
My question is, how do these various services compare? Are Zune Pass and Napster's monthly plans easy to cancel? How extensive of a selection does 2 million or 7 million mp3's translate to? Are there other similar services that offer unlimited downloads, or more cost-effective ways to sample full CDs? I am also curious as to how slashdot users integrate various web 2.0 music services (last.fm, foxytunes, etc.) in ways that actually lead to good recommendations and work well with their purchasing habits, instead of just attaining the goal of being plugged into every social network imaginable."
My question is, how do these various services compare? Are Zune Pass and Napster's monthly plans easy to cancel? How extensive of a selection does 2 million or 7 million mp3's translate to? Are there other similar services that offer unlimited downloads, or more cost-effective ways to sample full CDs? I am also curious as to how slashdot users integrate various web 2.0 music services (last.fm, foxytunes, etc.) in ways that actually lead to good recommendations and work well with their purchasing habits, instead of just attaining the goal of being plugged into every social network imaginable."
Bidding on the redesign of Recovery.gov->
Submitted
by
Andurin
Andurin writes "Sunlight Labs is soliciting help for their bid on the redesign of Recovery.gov. Labs director Clay Johnson is crowdsourcing a proposal for the project. If the bid is accepted, Sunlight Labs would manage an open source community to help build the site:
"We aren't government contractors. We've never done it before. We haven't a clue what we're doing. We don't even know if we're eligible. But who cares? We know we have a talented technical team here, and we know we have a great community of people around us. And we know we can do better than a lot of the government contracting establishment for a lot less money."
The Labs team has spent some time redesigning government Web sites in the past, but this is would be their first official effort, and their most ambitious."
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
Blogger Anonymity Smashed in Court Ruling->
Submitted
by
AbyssWyrm
AbyssWyrm writes "The UK Times Online reports, 'thousands of bloggers who operate behind the cloak of anonymity have no right to keep their identities secret, the High Court ruled yesterday. In a landmark decision, Mr Justice Eady refused to grant an order to protect the anonymity of a police officer who is the author of the NightJack blog. The officer, Richard Horton, 45, a detective constable with Lancashire Constabulary, had sought an injunction to stop The Times from revealing his name. In April Mr Horton was awarded the Orwell Prize for political writing, but the judges were unaware that he was using information about cases, some involving sex offences against children, that could be traced back to genuine prosecutions.'
An obviously significant ruling. Bloggers may not reasonably expect anonymity, and if your best argument is 'but I might get in trouble' then the judge is likely to rule against you."
Link to Original Source
An obviously significant ruling. Bloggers may not reasonably expect anonymity, and if your best argument is 'but I might get in trouble' then the judge is likely to rule against you."
Link to Original Source
Comment: Re:Mod Article -1 Whiner (Score 1) 387
Well, speaking of TV stereotypes, all of my friends who have seen The Big Bang Theory accuse me of being Sheldon.
So maybe.
Comment: Re:Mod Article -1 Whiner (Score 1) 387
Um, do you watch TV? "Good looking women stereotyped as airheads" was in the first example in the article, and is prevalent throughout Friends. Southerners stereotyped as trailer trash is virtually the premise of King of the Hill.
As for the rich folk, I don't think I've ever seen a rich folk not stereotyped that way -- for instance Lois' dad in Family Guy, Mr. Burns in The Simpsons, the villain in any Adam Sandler movie.
et cetera.