I understand that as meaning "this group doesn't know how to pick their targets".

So let's put people trying to make things better at risk?

The awareness I get from this is that hackers can give a huge blow against whistle blowers with no real "net gain" to any cause.

No, because it puts an end to "long term". To maximize entropy over time, one needs to keep as many options open as possible, so that one pushes the "end" to as far as possible.

Isn't it interesting, though, that if the Universe really follows this principle, that such a system would evolve into finite lives?

The only thing the two designs have in common is that they both have wings. This is the model that Santos Dumont successfully presented in 1906. And this is the model that the Wright Brothers used to be the first to fly an airplane.

Note that Santos Dumont's model takes off on its own and lands, while the Wrights' model is launched by an external device and cannot land without crashing (since it doesn't have wheels).

Thanks to a Santos Dumont's invention, the Demoiselle (Google translation), which was released to the public domain by the author.

Actually, I seem to remember my MSX-Basic 1.1 to be limited to 255 characters per line of code.

Ok, what about "digital release makes it extremely easy for the consumer to decide which songs are worth buying"?

I suppose the 30kg Roman welfare might have changed also. But if we take the GP's hypothesis at face value and consider the outcome of the Roman Empire, I wouldn't say they were such a good example :)

I refuse to read an article where the summary leads me to believe that the writer doesn't understand what subsides and import taxes are for, which is, to promote local development in detriment to imports.

Funny that you would think every town works exactly like Minneapolis and that people having different experiences must be liars.

In Montréal, Québec, the monthly transit pass costs $ 75.50. When there's a snow storm, some buses simply disappear. It's not what I'd call a pleasant return home to wait 1h+ under -20oC for a bus that won't come. And there's no service status information for buses. When I depended on that service, I decided to walk 40 min to get to the subway instead of waiting.

On the other hand, it could have taken 40m (1h if we want to be really pessimistic) to drive back home on the same weather conditions instead of 20min under normal conditions.

Sorry, you're wrong. Here's the PROOF.

Because you would ignore a world-wide defamatory campaign claiming that you are a child molester unless it's true?

If that's your notion of judgment, I'll stick to the justice system.

Source codes:
http://drdobbs.com/windows/226700457 (2010)
http://www.easterbrook.ca/steve/?p=667 (2009)

Raw data:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20739-ok-climate-sceptics-heres-the-raw-data-you-wanted.html (July 28 2011)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/williampentland/2011/07/28/climategate-researchers-release-long-sought-raw-data-on-global-temperatures/

No need for a public apology for failing Google search.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/08/24/case-closed-climategate-was-manufactured/

SCIENCE is FAILING us! Oh, wait...

No need to go too far. Just watch how animals can overcome physical challenges without seemly being able to think about it. For example, take two baby cats of opposite sex away from cathood until they are adults and they will still know how to eat, drink, mate, give birth and raise their pups like cats are supposed to.

Most of the programming needed for life to move on is already there, provided that the environment remains fairly stable. Our conscience is needed to allow us to travel from one "closed" system to another, like from Earth to Mars, so we don't go extinct if a huge meteor crashes against us.

Conscience comes at a cost. It raises our flexibility by orders of magnitude, but makes us more dependent on our own achievements.

I find that "science failing us" is not a very realistic affirmation and that the article concentrates on the wrong perspective.