It happens at amusement parks, during sporting events, etc. It may not be universal across all forms of entertainment, but it is across many. Sports bars are a more egregious contributor to obesity than computer gaming is ever likely to be.

Unless they use the same key for every subscriber. Try this - grab a file off of Bit Torrent, most any file will do, but make sure it is at least a few hundred megs. Now, upload it to your Dropbox account. Notice how the sync process was near instant? Thats because DB has that file already - someone else already uploaded it and DB was able to match it by checksum, skipping the need to actually upload it. Now, take a file that is unique to you - maybe a zip containing your vacation photos. Make sure it is at least a few hundred megs in size. Now, upload that to Dropbox. Note that it takes quite a bit longer, more in line with what you would expect uploading a file from your computer to a remote server over the Internet. If your files on Dropbox were encrypted with a unique key, every file you uploaded would be unique, so from this it is obvious that Dropbox not only has the capability to decrypt your data, but it does so regularly, if it encrypts it at all. Their data de-duplication would not work optimally if they couldn't.

That, and the fact that by simply spamming the courts and the news channels with reports of their litigation, they have made far more people aware that tools actually exist for obtaining free music than would have otherwise been aware (i.e. Streisand Effect). I submit that while some of these newly informed might side with RIAA in condemning the users of these tools, the vast majority likely had a Eureka moment and began stocking up on their favorite tunes (or used the knowledge to better target their existing activities). Definitely a case of Pot v. Kettle.

Let me impart a little lesson on reading between the lines. You read that sentence and see "family values." Why shouldn't taking care of your home and raising your children be more important than taking an interest and participating in your government?

I read that sentence and I see the destruction of the nuclear family. Why is the parent picking up a child from daycare rather than caring for it at home? The reason, of course, is that most families are now dual income, with both parents working, which means that they do not have time to stay home and raise children. This was not true 50 years ago. It seems obvious to me that this is not progress - twice as much work must be done to achieve the same standard of living, though granted, with more cool gadgets. How did this come to pass? Politics. So, it seems obvious to me that taking an active interest in politics might be easily as important as many of the mundane things we do as part of our regular schedule.

It is less immediate, sure, but not less important.

Let me get this straight: I pay a cable bill sufficient to provide me access to every show I enjoy, and I have not been offered the opportunity to be a Nielson household, yet somehow my watching or not watching a TV show that I have paid for in a format of my choosing is both freeloading and magically detectable to the great and glorious content providers? It seems to me that if I'm not a Nielson household, my vote doesn't count to save the TV shows I like, but likewise I am not bound to watch the commercials I don't like, since my eyes aren't counted there either. In fact, by torrenting my favorite shows, my viewing habits can at least be counted

I will grant that if EVERYONE did it, or even just the Nielson households, then yes, we could end up in the Stygian world you imply. Or maybe, just maybe, the content distributors would wake up to the fact that we dislike loud commercials and like time-shifting. They might also be forced to place heavier consideration on online viewing numbers, and then start providing TV shows in the way the customer desires, while still generating revenue either by charging per episode, or by providing less obtrusive (or at least less numerous/obnoxiously loud) ads, perhaps by using TASTEFUL product placement rather than stand-alone ads.

Right now, we can be ignored, because we can't vote with our wallets. No one knows if we are watching their ads because we aren't in the magical .02% of US households that are measured. If EVERYBODY did it, then the industry would actually have to consider their customer's desires for once, and then we would have a voice. So you'll excuse me if I'm not exactly crying over your ideals.

How old does a child need to be before they can get all of their vaccinations? Because to me, all of this anti-vax nonsense seems like a boon in disguise. Since only the stupid will be un-vaccinated, then when the epidemic caused by their failure to vaccinate comes about, they will be the only ones affected. It's like an epidemic that only affects stupid people - a win for society if you ask me. Except for that small window when newborns are too young to be properly vaccinated.

Actually, this means that fevers cause autism, in certain rare circumstances. Fevers, however, are fairly common and are practically guaranteed to happen sooner or later to a child (and certainly sooner when parents refuse vaccines and reduce herd immunity). As such, the vaccine simply had the misfortune to have caused it first (assuming that it was indeed a fever - or even a vaccine caused symptom - that triggered it). It's kind of like the parable of the man who was shot as he fell past a 10th story window. You could claim that it was the bullet that killed him and be technically correct, but the simple fact was that the sudden stop 10 stories below would have killed him in short order anyway. Either way, his death (or severe injury) was a certainty IN THE VERY NEAR TERM (for all those "everybody dies eventually" folks). Blaming the accidental shooter and holding them wholly responsible is ludicrous. This is in the same category as people suing McDonald's for making them fat.

Not really. The thesis in the article from the summary is that the rotation of the sun causes the fluctuations - in other words, the side of the sun's core facing you impacts decay rate. The article cited in the GPP concerning measurements from Cassini ends indicating that orbital distance has no measurable effect, but suggests other options, one of which is orbital location, which I presume means which side of the sun you are on. In short, one of the possible explanations from the Cassini measurements has been given more support from the later research discussed in the summary.

And by "former member of the Chinese Communist Party" you mean that she was born in China, and has since become an American citizen, and is only a communist by right of birth, and not by any conscious political affiliation. The far right could learn a thing or two about sensationalizing the facts from you. I suppose I should start disclosing that I was once an honored guest of the Chinese Communist Party because I had a layover in Hong Kong once.

That is a good question. It seems logical that if one can't read, they also can't write, and so it stands to reason that one can graduate high school without learning how to write (if you take the statement you quoted as truth), which you seem to be implying is the case with the GPP. Of course, the statement allows that at least some high school graduates can read, and presumably write, so their ability to do (or not do) either tells us little about their graduation status. Without a knowledge of the educational distribution of Slashdot posters, any sort of educated guess would be unlikely. However, considering his familiarity and interest in the subject, I would imagine that the GPP is posting from a position of at least some experience with the subject, and therefore either has already graduated from high school, or is quite close to graduating.

My only source of confusion in the matter is why the answer to your question is important enough to undo your previous moderations, unless you had mis-modded and needed to post anyway to undue them.