If you're so keen to convince me, why not provide a few links of your own? We can go link for link -- I'll stand you the Wikipedia link.

Here are a few on the cult issue specifically:

http://www.religioustolerance.org/falungong3.htm
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,165166,00.html

They criticise what deserves criticism and give credit where it's due. Almost all religions teach compassion, which is a good thing. Some of them have dubious metaphysical tenets or practices, which deserve criticism.

One reason for the distinction you raise is that many people regard the Buddhist metaphysic and its emphasis on individual empirical investigation as far more plausible than the Christian metaphysic and the Christian emphasis on faith.

But that's a separate issue from calling on the government to suppress something because it's a "cult", or "mind-wank". People should be free to mind-wank as much as they like, as long as they're not harming others. That's freedom of religion.

Well, I guess the fascists were going to crawl out of the woodwork eventually.

From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Gong#Beliefs_and_practices):

Falun Gong aspires to enable the practitioner to ascend spiritually through moral rectitude and the practice of a set of exercises and meditation. The three central tenets of the belief are 'Truthfulness' (, Zhn), 'Compassion' (, Shàn), and 'Forbearance' (, Rn).[28] Together these principles are regarded as the fundamental nature of the cosmos, and are held to be the highest manifestation of the Tao, or Buddhist Dharma.

Truthfulness, compassion and forbearance? Holy mother of god, how horrible! We should suppress these people asap. Quick, call Cisco.

Well. That is pretty damning.

That's interesting... but the argument in your last sentence -- which I acknowledge doesn't represent the whole gist of your comment -- is a version of the infamous Pol Pot Defence (in which Pol Pot says "What, criticise me? What about Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Satan? I'm not as bad as them. Go criticise them.")

If Cisco knowingly supplied equipment to suppress Falun Gong, make them pay now, not in 50 years' time. They're as good a place to start as any. Set a precedent, then carry it through to all the other bastards.

...is that he's connected to Bayer, maker of pesticides, whose confirmed bee-killing effects were notably absent from this study. It's described in detail here (CNN.com).

If 'Neural Interface' had been higher up the options list, it would have 80% of the votes. I had seen and selected 'Mouse and Keyboard' and was right about to vote when I read the rest of the list...

A "History of Western Philosophy" necessarily tells only half the story: the western side. If you're into philosophy, you own it to yourself to explore Eastern philosophy, which is (also) the hotness. Try Nagarjuna particularly, if you're into epistemology, or even just into having your head blown open, laughing stupidly and asking "What is the matrix?"

Robert J. Ekas is obviously the American representative of what will become a worldwide movement.

In South Africa, a university student who may or may not have flipped off the police in a presidential cavalcade was summarily arrested, had a bag put over his head and was detained while his home was searched. Nice.

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-02-19-no-middle-finger-to-prez

Fortunately the media kicked up a big fuss about it. It's not illegal to be rude.

This is why Slashdot should have +6 awesome

This looks really great. But for me, a mistake is that the touchpad is in front of the keyboard. You have to move your arms forward and back when you want to switch; using one hand on each is tricky if the touchpad registers your dangling sleeve or your wrist.

I think it would be much better if the total area of the touchpad was split between the two side of the keyboard. Then you could have both hands on the touchpad or one on the touchpad and one on the keyboard, and you wouldn't have to do the forward-back thing with your arms.

Take one meter. Make a cube of that side, a cubic meter. Fill that with water near the sea level and you get a volume of 1 Liter of water.

Um. Negative on that, Command. Our cubic metre seems to be holding not 1 but 1000 litres of water at sea level.

Regardless, the elegance of your system cannot be denied.

By the way, while you Americans are converting from F to C, please also convert from liters to litres, from center to centre, etc. Cos it's prettier our way.

250-Foot Hybrid Airship In Which To Spy Over Afghanistan

if you please