The proper answer would have been "We cannot discuss matter of national security" to all questions. The problem with this answer was that there was already an increasing chorus rising about their true activities, so the only thing they could do was lie in an attempt to discredit those telling the truth or attempt alleviate concerns of those worried about NSA violations of the 4th amendment.

BENGHAZI, Libya — Unidentified men gunned down an American chemistry teacher here on Thursday morning as he jogged outside his home, according to Libyan security officials and the director of the teacher’s school.

Friends identified the teacher as Ronnie Smith, 33, of Austin, Tex. Libyan security officials said they had yet to determine a motive for the killing, which came during a surge of assassinations and armed clashes in Benghazi.

Mr. Smith was one of the dwindling number of Western citizens still working in Benghazi, the birthplace of the uprising against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in 2011 and now a symbol of Libya’s growing anarchy. Over the last two years, a string of extremist attacks on diplomats and other foreigners, most notably the September 2012 killing of the American ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens, has deepened the city’s isolation.

Assassinations of security officers or former Qaddafi officials are reported almost daily, and lawless militias, including some linked to Muslim extremists, test the government’s control. Last week, at least nine people were killed as a militia linked to the killing of Mr. Stevens, Ansar al-Shariah, battled a local military unit. On Thursday, at least three security officials were killed in Benghazi.

Despite the danger, Mr. Smith, who had been in Benghazi for more than a year, “never thought for a moment he would be targeted,” said Adel Mansouri, the director of the International School in Benghazi, where Mr. Smith taught chemistry to secondary school students.

After earning a master’s degree in the subject from the University of Texas, Austin, in 2006, Mr. Smith served for a time on the staff of the Austin Stone Community Church, as a teaching pastor and a deacon. He moved to Libya with his wife, Anita, and their young son to continue teaching and “to be a blessing to the Libyan people,” Dave Barrett, a pastor at the church, said in a statement. Mr. Smith’s wife and child were in Texas at the time of the attack, Mr. Barrett said.

A man reached by telephone in Michigan who identified himself as Mr. Smith’s brother-in-law declined to comment on his death. “If you could give us a couple of days, that would be great,” said the man, who identified himself only as Jason. “We just found out about an hour ago.”

After joining the English-language International School, Mr. Smith quickly became its most popular instructor, Mr. Mansouri said.

One of his students, an 18-year-old woman who did not want to be identified, said Libya’s violence had left the students “in a state of depression.” Mr. Smith, she said, was “like a light.”

“He was very supportive to us,” she said in a telephone interview. “He helped me with my university applications. After the revolution, most of us lost hope and he encouraged us.”

When he arrived, he asked what the students did for fun and how they communicated. They did not spend much time outside because of the violence, she said, so they used Twitter. He would join them, she said, often joking as a way to inspire and motivate them.

Mr. Smith’s Twitter feed amounted to a diary of his life in Benghazi. He called himself “Libya’s best friend.”

Several entries voiced frustration with the city and its residents. At other times, he praised the place. “There is one thing Libyans are good at: making foreigners feel like family,” he wrote on Oct. 20.

He also poked fun at the militants. On Oct. 24, he wrote: “Where’s Ansar al-Sharia when you need them? Someone make a call and tell them boys and girls making out here.”

On Nov. 25, the day members of Ansar al-Shariah were driven from their base in Benghazi, Mr. Smith wrote, “More like Ansar Al-see ya!”

On Thursday morning, Mr. Mansouri said, he was called to identify the teacher’s body, which was lying outside his house in an upscale neighborhood near the American diplomatic compound where Mr. Stevens was killed.

The principal called an emergency meeting in the assembly hall at the school, where the students were in the middle of midterm examinations, the 18-year-old student said. At the news of Mr. Smith’s death, the room filled with screams and students collapsed.

Mr. Mansouri said Mr. Smith had told him that he planned to stay in Libya for many years. “He felt very safe,” Mr. Mansouri said. “Is this a robbery, or terrorism? We just don’t know.”

Suliman Ali Zway reported from Benghazi, and Kareem Fahim from Cairo. Jennifer Preston contributed reporting from New York, and Manny Fernandez from Houston.

HDMI Hack For those with the time and skills, not too hard.

Gallows. Really. I find you and Pudge's little go-rounds kind of tedious, but you're strongly justifying him. I've absolutely never advocated more than the simple justice the Benghazi Four have been heretofore denied, and which the no-talent rodeo clown adroitly evades.
You're false to claim I advocated proceeding to the gallows. But that's consistent with your strange incuriosity about traditional concepts of truth & justice.
Expecting nothing from you, I am not disappointed.

Well for a real frozen time effect you need the LHC - time passes over 14,000 times slower for the protons in it than it does for us. Although it is a little bit less interesting on film given that the protons don;t really do much!

Which reminds us: where are all the "LHC creates a quantum magic black hole and a hundred Arnold Schwarzeneggers from alternative realities must band together to terminate it" -themed disaster movies? Mayan apocalypse/calendar rollover has been used up, but the LHC is busily recreating Big Bang. You'd even have a ready-made excuse for any plot holes: "The LHC is distorting the time-space continuum! It's causing ripple effects!".

Just think about it: Conan the Barbarian, T-800 and the ex-governor of California all teaming together to fight an evil black hole!

Or special prosecutor.

And my request is for a grand jury. But "what difference, at this point, does it make?"

FAT has been there since the 1980s, as a part of DOS itself

They are merely lazy and lack discipline, so they lie and assert it's "difficult" when they just don't give a shit. Everyone has met the hambeast which snivels about its weight while devouring ginormous caloric surpluses.

So hundreds of millions of people are actually a single entity - "the" hambeast - who you know personally well enough to vouch for their character and motives?

That's some extremely disciplined thinking right there.

Grow a pair, stop blaming other people for your own bad eating habits, take control of your life and stop being conned by all the faddy diets aimed at quick fixes.

Yup, that's precisely what the summary was talking about:

"But in addition, George Bray thinks that socioeconomic factors play into physicians' lack of enthusiasm for treating obesity because obesity is, disproportionately, a disease of poverty. Because of this association, many erroneously see obesity as more of a social condition than a medical one, a condition that simply requires people to try harder."

Thank you for providing a fine example of how people still associate the frailty of mortals with moral failure. I wonder if this is another thing we can thank religion for, after all a quick reading of Genesis might easily lead to such a connection.

There are no quick fixes, just good, healthy ways to eat.

This is, if you think about it, pretty weird. Getting fat is not like stuffing a balloon full of lard; rather, your body builds fat tissue in response to hormonal cues. There's no erason whatsoever why you should ever get fat beyond some cutoff point no matter what your diet; the unused calories would simply pass by and be excreted. That you do means that your body's control system fails somehow, which should be treatable/adjustable once the details have been researched.

The same goes for muscles, bones and pretty much everything else. There's no reason why staying fit should require running in circles and lifting heavy objects just to lower them again. The effect of excersize is to change your hormonal balance, the actual tissue-building happens afterwards.

Your statement's an oxymoron.

Nexus devices don't have them because somebody at Google doesn't seem to like them.

Unfortunately I get the impression sometimes that there are influential people at Google who think that the iPhone is popular because you can't insert an SD card, can't change the battery, and because the battery life is crap, rather than because it's user friendly.

I have, every couple of months or so. Winds up being refreshing. But the point here is that the studies themselves never get around to posing such a question. Wonder why that might be?

Your idea only makes sense if there is no distinction between "organism" and "individual", where we take "individual" to mean, e.g. "having a slashdot login".

In what broader context? Are you not in hyper-materialist mode this week?

In the theological sense of being a sinner, sure. Are you seriously stepping into a Christian context? Welcome! C'mon in: the Water of Life quenches that thirst.

Yes, that WAS my point. One of them, anyway. In order to override ANY U.S. law, it first has to be ratified by the Senate.

Technically true, but remember that a treaty is usually a combination of clauses, not just one, all of which need to be agreed to. If the Senate agrees that the good clauses are something they want then they have to decide whether the bad ones are something that can be tolerated or not.

Now, based upon this, and based upon the fact the Senate can't just pass amendments or similar in the usual way, and given the fact that SOPA is pretty much what the political establishment wants in this country, do you think we stand much of a chance of seeing this treaty go unratified?