Bravo, whoever you are, AC... I AM a follower of Christ and, while I am not a bible scholar, both my father and brother are. Parent comment is an exquisite description of the confusion at hand regarding 'original sin' and 'immaculate conception'... and the origins of these doctrines within Catholic history.

Ya know... It's funny. As I was reading your post I began to imagine that similar thoughts must have gone through God's mind before he created the 'Heavens and the Earth' - assuming he did.

Just listen to the discussion here... Some of us humans have so little faith in ourselves that we're talking about creating all-powerful computer systems to control people and societies - all toward our ultimate goal. God, of course, also has an ultimate goal I think... he didn't just create the self-sustaining generational ship to get us there (Earth) but he gave us free will. He is braver and has more faith in his creation than we are in ourselves methinks.

Isn't that an interesting parallel? I can imagine God reading /. right now and saying to himself: "Yep... It's not as easy as it looks is it?... to create a self-sustaining world, put people on it and expect things to turn out how you'd like in the end."

Very good point... It always amuses/saddens me to read these ignorant rants from liberal retards (I would estimate 90%+ of the /. comments). They get so cross whenever a story like this comes along about a corporation doing the best they can to increase income/revenue/profit and lessen their tax exposure... the EXACT same thing the complainers do when they fill out their tax return, albeit on a smaller scale. When they stop taking any deductions (standard or otherwise) on their tax returns - and pay income tax on the full, non-adjusted gross income THEN I will listen to their rants.

You liberal retards don't understand that:
1. Corporations do NOT pay taxes... People do. Corporations are legal fictions and when taxed do one or a combination of 3 things: Lower dividends to investors, lay-off workers or, more often than not, increase the price of their product. A corporation is therefore NOT a tax payer... it is a tax COLLECTOR!

2. The loopholes you like to gripe about (legal ones) are in the tax code ON PURPOSE!... put there by the politicians. Gripe at them, not the sensible leaders of a corporation doing the best they can (legally) to lessen their tax exposure.

Many of you have been brainwashed into thinking that being 'rich' - whatever that means - is somehow inherently evil... so you support taxation policies that confiscate more of what people have when they have more. Why? Is it because they OUGHT to be able to live on less money? Is it because you think they don't pay their fair share in taxes? Is it because they earn 10 or 100 times what you earn in a year and you think they are greedy? What do these things matter to you? It is because YOU are the one who is greedy... You are envious of what somebody else has and you support taxation policies that take what they have and give a small piece to you.

So fracking what the rich guy lives in a mansion... who was paid to build the mansion? So fracking what they guy has a yacht... who was paid to build the yacht? So fracking what he has ten cars... Lots of people were employed to build those cars. So fracking what the guy has a million dollars sitting in the bank... The bank is loaning that money to people who otherwise wouldn't have access to it.

You see? Just because a person has a large amount of wealth associated with their name does NOT mean they are greedy and others are not benefiting from it. Even if they do use so-called loopholes to get around taxation - they've gotta spend their money somewhere! They aren't likely to bury it in the back yard.

If companies/individuals are breaking the law, however... penalize them harshly! If it's a stupid law... work to change it.

Actually, I have nothing against the shows. I think they are often funny. Colbert is a particularly brilliant comic/writer. They are by no means credible news sources, however... but many of my liberal friends run away with the same devotion to what they saw/heard on the show(s) as they whine and complain about followers of, say, Rush Limbaugh doing.

One would unlikely to find individuals both interested enough and unbiased enough to conduct a 'scientific' study who's results would be credible. I think the most telling aspect of the whole debate is the ratings of Fox News continue to climb into the stratosphere as the ratings of ALL other news networks and shows continue to dwindle into obscurity.

I, for one, think it's pretty sad that a disturbingly large segment of younger viewers get their 'news' primarily from a comedy show (Jon Stewart). Almost every liberal I know who likes that show has an incredibly arrogant and condescending attitude about their supposedly 'enlightened' beliefs and political philosophies. They seem to feel the very fact that they are liberal makes them better and smarter than those who are not. It therefore becomes difficult to have an intelligent and cordial conversation with them as their beliefs are largely wrapped up in their emotional make-up. Many lack the ability to substantively debate an idea. They refuse to confront facts or opinions that they don't like and quickly trail off into calling whatever they disagree with racist, homophobic, bigoted and the like (Or in the case of Fox News - liars).

But do you have to put your hands on your hips?

I never thought about it until I saw pictures of the rovers with the layer of dust on the solar panels, but it seems like it would be somewhat trivial to send the next one with... say... a revolving brush that could somehow clear the dust off the panels periodically... or perhaps a puff of compressed air from the end of a robotic arm. Seems like the dust has been one of the main set-backs for power generation on the mission. Coming up with a good way of dealing with that could extend the missions indefinitely... precluding other mechanical failures, and a failure of the dust-removal system itself.

Exactly... One can imagine all manner of crazy situations we may get into. For example, a website selling 3D shutter glasses being required to have a blind-accessible website. Or how about required closed captioning for your YouTube videos!

Seriously?... One meter of sea rise over the next century? I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic or not, but those kinds of figures just floor me. And it's astounding to me that people actually believe crap like that.

Do the math. There's not enough surface water/ice on all the continents COMBINED to raise the ocean levels by one meter... even if ALL the surface water somehow migrated all at once to the sea.

A decade ago I would have agreed with you, and you are probably still correct. These days I have to wonder, however. The Supreme Court of the United States has recently upheld the practice of municipalities condemning and acquiring private property owned by a citizen - for the sole purpose of giving it to another citizen because the latter plans to develop the property such that it better benefits the tax collections for the municipality. Government does need to be able to take private land - with just compensation to the owner - for public use such as roads, parks, etc. The framers of the constitution never intended that power to be used in ways it has been recently. The revenue generating potential (for the state) of what another citizen plans to do with the land outweighs the fact that the land is mine.

Therefore, It is possible that the courts will side with the state. The revenue generating potential of having a mini billboard on something that travels state-owned roads may outweigh the fact that it is supposedly owned by me.

In my experience, (and granted I have a small statistical sampling) the kids one might think were most likely to succeed in life at about the 10th grade level... usually were the ones who wound up as drug-heads and/or in jail for various crimes by the time they were the age of college freshmen or sophmores.... and the kids one might expect to be losers usually turn out to be the most successful.

SNOW is not generally a problem when it comes to defrosting windows... it's ICE. Keep in mind, some of us live where much of the frozen perciptiation we get is not like the nice fluffy and powdery snow you may get. It's a totally different ball-game when there's a layer of ice on your windshield twice as thick as the glass itself. Sometimes you have to let the engine warm up enough to melt the undersurface before it can be scraped off.

Actually, FAX machines - as we currently know them - are already on their way out. Current FAX machines will NOT work on VOIP networks. And as most telephone networks are moving toward VOIP - it's just a matter of time before they are big, expensive paper-weights.

I don't think switching to a VOIP solution necessitates completely ditching the current infrastructure. Instead of having to have 4 KHz filters on a POTS line and shoving enough voltage down it to ring a freaking bell, they'll just have an IP device on each end of the copper. These days I would expect almost every CO to CO or DSLAM to CO to be IP-based copper or fiber already. This is just basically suggesting we do away with decades-old regulations requiring analog telephone service and switching to a modern digital technology... and take what is ALREADY probably IP-based at the CO all the way down to the end-point.

It WILL require everybody to get a new phone - or some sort of adaptor... but we've already been through that with the transition to digital TV.