If 7 different actors can be James Bond, I'm sure we can find a whiny blond to be Luke.

Now that he's selling it, who cares what his original "vision" was for episodes 7 and beyond? Grand Admiral Thrawn is the obvious direction to take.

A very good point. However, with some modification, the GP's point still holds.

If the OP is able to prune, he or she should. Film photographers were limited by the cost of film and processing; digital photographers are limited by the cost of storage and backup.

If the OP is unable to prune, for the reasons you note, then the costs of a reliable offsite backup service needs to be included in the cost of his or her services. So, it would cost $X to shoot 1000 photos and make sure that they are available for a year, $2X to ensure availability for 3 years, or $x per year to ensure availability.

Where "stomped the shit" means that 2000 people out of a Maine population of 1.3 million voted for Paul (about 1000 voted for Santorum). If we assume that the state is about half Republican, then we have a contest so critical and compelling that a whole 0.8% of the state's Republican voters bothered to turn out.

What's the difference between watching you go into the bathroom and watching you poop?

Sounds like you're a socialist. Any good capitalist worker would realize that their sacrifices are necessary for capital growth.

Dumber than a pile of rocks. Somehow, the removal of all government regulation and control will lead to a paradise?

You realize we had that here in the United States at one point? In the romanticized Old West, John Wayne's character - the irascible lawman - won out over the evil gunslinger. In actuality, whoever had the most money (firepower) did whatever he wanted. Somewhat later, the now-idolized robber barons (Carnegie, Rockefeller) ensured that anyone who didn't play along with their goals starved, while those that did play along were effective slaves.

The reason your great-aunt didn't die of starvation: government (pretty common 100 years ago). The reason your cousin isn't in debtor's prison: government (again, pretty common not that long ago). The reason that the average lifespan has increased from ~50 to ~76 in the past 100 years: government.

If you want to live in a libertarian paradise, move to Somalia.

If you're working in a research/academic setting, you're paying for it either way. It just comes out of different pots of money. And since the publishers are relentlessly hiking institutional subscription rates, your institutional budget for journal subscriptions is getting out of control. What's better: pay a fixed fee up front for something that you (and everyone else) will be able to read anytime, anywhere, or pay an ever-growing recurring fee for something that only people at research/academic institutions can read?

See above.

I go to 5 or so sites on a daily basis. Slashdot is in that list as a reflex. I'm not scrounging the entire net, yet /. is still reposting stuff from weeks past.

I like slashdot; I've been visiting for 13 years, but it's not often "news for nerds", and similarly rarely "stuff that matters." By definition, news is timely. And the editorial (community) selections lead to "stuff that matters" only the first time around - not on the 4th repost.

Note that Ars isn't reposting this on a bi-weekly basis... Not that they are the be-all and end-all of internet news, but they're beating the pants off slashdot in the last few years.

Point taken. Yet, if Slashdot is going to retain any relevance whatsoever, some mechanism to (mostly) eliminate weeks-late reposts needs to be developed.

The foundation of the story was posted on the linked blog on September 23rd, and most blogs and news outlets covered it then (e.g. ars technica).

Good job being timely, slashdot. At one point I could come here for breaking information. Those days are long gone.

It's hardly surprising that the study found such an amazing effect, since any study that did not would never have been released to the public.

"The study, conducted by researchers from the International Research Agency on behalf of Texas Instruments" was destined to find that Texas Instruments 3D tools are amazing. What's left unsaid is that the 30 other studies that TI funded didn't find any effect.