What has slashdot become? Terrible. This is supposed to be "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters."

What is the epitome of stuff that does not matter? Sports.

If the prospective editor can't use mark-up, what does that tell you about their overall intellectual ability? Keep Wikipedia great, full of high-quality articles by intellectuals -- disallow visual editing.

Scott Adams compares our loss of privacy to the domestication of dogs. That is unsupportable nonsense.

According to Wikipedia, the current lineage of domesticated dogs diverged approximately 15,000 years ago. Our current American situation of lost privacy depends greatly on the electronic digital computer, which is around 75 years old. Therefore, Scott Adams was exaggerating by a factor of 200, and - more relevant - a difference of 14,925 years.

The pervasive surveillance society, including facial recognition and the networking of ubiquitous video cameras, is being implemented at present. Today is much more recent than 15,000 years ago -- 15,000 years more recent, in fact.

By suggesting that a national debate on our right to privacy is somehow not timely, and implying that we should instead accept that we have never had privacy, Scott Adams has deeply disappointed me. I really thought he was more intelligent than this, because his cartoon routinely makes fun of certain types of people for their stupidity. I figured that meant he was smart.

The appropriate time to have a national conversation about our rights to privacy and to be "secure in our persons" is now. Today.

Exactly. The latency of response in an NTP server must be consistent in order for the algorithm to converge. It doesn't matter what timing source is used for a reference, if the network communication has variable latency, the NTP precision must degrade. It's revealing that VM proponents don't seem to understand this.

Indeed. For example, does it not seem dumb to virtualize an NTP server?

I think you would enjoy the Pilot BP-S. The "S" stands for "small", which helps with small writing such as yours and mine. The "BP" stands for "Ball Point" -- in this case an exquisite ball which does not emit blobs, and is always wetted with ink and ready to roll.

The Pilot BP-S is best when combined with National Brand 42-182 graph paper.

Reading comprehension fail, blame is yours.

"Ubiquitous video cameras" is a situation. It means that there was a time when video cameras were not ubiquitous. I'll grant you, we're really talking about the worrisome situation of "Ubiquitous networks video cameras," but you didn't address that point.

Your point that the problem is the policy, not the equipment, does make some sense. However it is the presence of the equipment which allows the policy to be implemented at anytime. Policies change with politicians who hold office. The equipment is the constant thing.

More to the point: the question inquired what technology we would roll back, not which policies.

Yes. Ubiquitous video cameras turn into a surveillance society. See Trapwire.

You're not a very good Spy Handler if you can't see that.

I know! Right?

It's almost like "they" are putting stuff in the food to pacify us and make us really fat...

Ahh, in the US, Organic is also a regulated term. Among other things, organic food may not be sprayed with synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers. Also, the soil must be tested and found to be clean of toxins.

My reference to "government 'safety standard'" was meant to be a reference to the standards for safe levels of synthetic pesticides on food not labelled organic.

Or did I misunderstand what you wanted me to understand from your post?

Well AC, you're the idiot.

Oh, really? What is the "Food Security Institute," and who funds it? Doesn't it have a nice, Orwellian, name? The answer is: FSI employs the shills^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hscientists who wrote this propaganda piece, and it is funded by Cargill, Monsanto, and many other villains who have an interest in spreading this disinformation.

Because evolution, dummy. If natural pesticides were harmful to us, they would taste bad to us. Fifty years of synthetic pesticide is not enough time for us to evolve a negative reaction to their taste.

You are a dummy and a sheepie. But at least you are a smug, anonymous, sheepie. Say "Baaaa!" sheepie.

I think you might be interested in a wheat protein named "gliadin". Consider the venue, I will leave it at that.

That may be your opinion, but of the dozens of people I know who eat organic food, the reason is to avoid pesticides and insecticides, because we do not trust the government "safety standard."

Because the people Monsanto wants to fool aren't consumers; they are congressional Representatives and Senators.

Slashdot is run by dummies and corporate shills. There is no other explanation for finding this article posted today, including only the most stale information, and somehow overlooking the revelations which have come to light in the last week.

People, like me, who buy organic foods are not under any misimpression that organic foods contain more vitamins. That is stupid. We are trying to avoid the pesticides and insecticides, which are not safe in any quantity.

That said, why is Slashdot running this article? It came out over a week ago. Since then, we have learned that Monsanto and Cargill funded the research group at Stanford. That is why the study's conclusion is disingenuous and makes no sense. The study discredits an idea that people never should have held -- that organic foods contain more vitamins by weight. This is the first volley in an attempt to attack the USDA labelling regulations around the word "organic."

Think about this for a minute: Which would you expect to have more vitamins? An organic strawberry fertilized with cow manure, or an inorganic strawberry fertilized with chemicals optimized for that purpose. Obviously, the inorganic strawberry. Anybody can figure this out. That's why the study has nothing to do with the actual reasons people choose organic.

Anybody who follows reddit already knows this study is a corporate shill. The "news standards" at slashdot are ridiculous. The right-wing bent of the editors is glaring. Soulskill, in particular, you are a dork.

Lately I have seen a huge number of articles showing up on slashdot days after they made the headlines on reddit. Slashdot is no longer a source of information. Reddit has replaced slashdot.