"I was assuming the parent poster wasn't so much a terrorist as a mischievous prankster"

How do you tell the difference? A dirty bomb is mostly a weapon of mass distraction. The response is likely what shuts down an important area, rather than the actual danger.

Doing it with a sizable number of relatively harmless sources spread out over a block or two will keep them guessing what the danger and scope is for a bit, even if each one isn't particularly dangerous. It doesn't have the extended clean up phase, but they still have to evacuate, check people as they exit, and then determine what the devil is going on. It also gets a lot of attention.

The individuals who placed them can just claim it was a prank that got out of hand. You'll probably still get jailed, but it'd be hard to justify a life term for it.

At the same time, AQAP, for example issues a claim of responsibility. No one is really sure what the straight of it is. More confusion, disruption and doubt.

Maybe they can still link those who placed the sources to a higher level group, but it's still a lot easier to recruit pranksters than hard core murderers.

You can also use several of this sort of incident to get people to stop reacting to it (alert fatigue), and then release something that initially looks similar to the detectors but is really much more dangerous.

Is that "fact" like the three copies of Windows 8 that Microsoft counts me as having "bought"?

I bought three 802.11AC routers from Newegg and automagically had three copies of Win8 added to my cart which were included in the price, but also had an automatic rebate that was applied immediately. That was just before MS came out with the surprisingly large sales figures. I was only one of many.

Just because it's said by a company you rather like doesn't mean it's not misleading. For example, how much credence would you give something similar said by Apple?

"Are all these nifty, analytics-intensive features enough to change the larger fortunes of Google Plus?"

No.

Try to adapt what is available and economical to accomplish what is needed.

It's that you were able to do the job well and efficiently that counts.

Whether you do it with the newest raddest paid-too-much-for-that is of a lot less consequence.

There are times when the newest and best is what's needed, either due to performance constraints or user desire. But often the way to tell compulsive pioneers is the arrows in their backs.

That said, make sure you're up to date on being able to use the new. Knowing how to, but using the tried and true is a choice. If you don't know the new technologies, then you really are locked in to the old and growing stodgy.

Huh. I didn't know that RMS was a "conservative". He'll be so surprised.

"And, notable, Larry Page is (at this writing) on stage, with an unannounced Q & A session."

Someone ask him how the frack we can change back to the old google plus design. Changing the stream settings seems to just make the new layout single column and thus suck even more.

And their documentation doesn't seem to say jack.

You just made zombie Baby Hitler cry.

"Guro images involving furries demanding giant penises,getting said penises in ways they clearly did not find favorable"

Somehow, I bet there would be a market for those. (It's sort of an extension of rule 34)

Welcome to fandom of all kinds. From fantasy chainmail bikinis with "modifications" to anime drawings that defy the laws of physics (let alone any form of taste).

It comes from having human beings that don't necessarily have a whole lot of social skills and do have a whole lot of androgens.

Imagine what the fandom for lingerie football must be like.

Every fandom has its "Erma Felna with a crowbar" stories.

The only reason I have a 6 digit ID is because I hung around as an AC for some time before bothering to register. :)

"modify your life such that it now revolves around that show, and you feel compelled to convert others to your obcesson"

So, what were you saying about Chicago Cubs fans here in central Illinois?

" "Furries = Perverts" forced meme that SomethingAwful pushed out."

The real joke of this, is a number of the SA Goons who pushed the anti-furry meme hardest are furries themselves. (And at least a couple of those are regular posters here on Slashdot. They can out themselves if they wish. I'll just whistle innocently.;)

You're locking up the stable after the horse has already bolted, as it were.

The boring truth about most fandoms can hardly compete with the lurid imaginations of those desperately searching for someone they can consider more hopeless than they are.

Remember. These are Slashdot ACs, the most pathetic losers ever to inhabit their mom's basement. 'Nuff said.

Your experience sounds similar to that of many who've been treated by reputable mental health professionals, including myself.

But, since you admitted that you're a diagnosed manic depressive, anyone who doesn't want to believe that the meds helped can simply discount what you say as coming from someone who has a mental problem.

And, of course, they can then proceed to "if he only did my particular favored combination of Reiki, homeopathy and an all blueberry diet, he'd really get better, and then wouldn't imagine that he got better from the meds."

At the root, mental illness is a process that depends on both environment and genetics, but the effects are from disruptions in the functioning of the cells of the central nervous system and or how they communicate with each other. That can be at many levels, from genetic mistakes, to poorly learned coping skills, to brain alterations from stress that can be seen in imaging, to the aftermath of a stroke, etc, etc.

If it was simple, our brains would be too simple to understand it.

As such, sometime pharmacological means will help. Sometimes talk therapies, or cognitive/learning therapies will help. Sometimes, nothing seems to help.

The best hope for improvement in being able to better help these often devastating conditions is in better understanding of the operations and biochemical basis of the brain and nervous system. But, it's going to take a long time. Until then , we have to do a lot of cut and try and see what works.

I use that very one at work to find bad bearings and the like in vacuum pumps. One of the most useful $4 items I've bought.