Thanks for the additional links. I did some more reading and found pretty much what you said. I will certainly try to find source material in the future if I come across an article from Natural News. Although from what I can tell, the Haitian Government itself was confused on the issue for a bit so I can certainly understand the farmers being upset and afraid of what was going on. I don't go to Natural News normally so wasn't familiar with their strong bent. 'course, it seems there are fewer and fewer sites without one so I'm having to read twice as much material to get some balance in anything I read. :P Nice chatting with you.

It sounds like we are mostly on the same page. We are in agreement that there should not be patents on seeds. And, in that context, we are in agreement that GM seeds can be very beneficial. However, the reality is that patent law on seeds is being enforced globally and Monsanto continues to try to "give" it's patented seeds away http://www.naturalnews.com/029222_GMOs_Haiti.html while suing farmers who get the seeds blown into their fields. Therefore, although I can appreciate the good GM seed can do, I am far more concerned with the harm that is already happening due to the patents involved.

You seem to be saying we should give GMOs to third world countries because we can't give them stable governments. I don't see how these are related. Not being able to offer a stable government does not mean we should give GMOs instead. We can continue to give non-GMO seed and food that has no patent restrictions on it. That way, where possible, they can plant the seeds again the next year. With GMOs they cannot. Also, if we introduce GMO crops into third world countries then they become under the direct control of their own dictatorial leaders AND the company that owns the patent on the seeds which has the right to sell their seed at "whatever the market can bear" (or more). This is a noose around third world countries as much as it has already become one around our own. Entire books and research have been put into making unfertile soil fertile again without the use of GMOs. Those strategies are far better for these countries than patent-enforced crops they have no control over. We are supposed to be teaching them to be self-sustainable. You can't be self-sustaining if you need to purchase your seed from another country.

~shrugs~ If you can't or don't want to setup a secure environment on your server for it then grab desktop with the VM software of your choice and create a basic LAMP environment and tell them to go at it. Unplug the desktop from the network if you're really worried. All they need is just enough to show they can navigate the environment and do some quick/basic setups and coding to start with.

When I have been part of the interview process for techs I always require hands-on repair of (non-critical) machines to show they can actually troubleshoot and fix a real problem. I choose the problem based on common points of failure and replicate the problem so it's a real-world problem with a real-world fix. I've never been disappointed with folks who can pass my test.

In fact, it's even more of a dupe than that. Here's the link to an IEEE article in March of 2007 http://spectrum.ieee.org/robotics/military-robots/a-robotic-sentry-for-koreas-demilitarized-zone. Also, here's a Youtube video of it in action http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5YftEAbmMQ.

I'm right with you. I've said for awhile that I would be more than willing to support Linux games with money. I really liked the fact that they offered it with many different packaging solutions and offered a couple demo levels up front so I could be sure it would work well on my equipment and that I would enjoy it. All in all, I think what this company has done is the best way to market games. I look forward to them doing more and/or other games following their lead. As a side note, I'm enjoying my purchased version right after sending this comment. :D

Did anyone else catch this? (Emphasis mine)

You mean like this?

Nah, the Windows Send Error Report dialog is just a fancy version of the close elevator door button. Some people use it to feel like something is being accomplished, but really, everyone knows neither is actually connected to anything (except in the movies, of course). ;)

I think the problem and question is which data is freely available? Here's a link http://icecap.us/index.php/go/joes-blog/are_we_feeling_warmer_yet/ that shows differences in the raw data versus the adjusted data. I understand the argument of needing to adjust for different issues, but people rarely know if they are being given adjusted or unadjusted readings. Some of the stonewalling of information that these scientists didn't want to reveal was the original temperatures and the process through which they created the adjusted readings. I'd call that mighty significant information to provide.

I can only find the excerpts. The original document seems to be completely gone. A paraphrased commentary does not a source document make. Looks like Apex actually managed to get the document down before they could be replicated endlessly.

~lol~ Yup, had my literal hat on. Totally over my head. Oh well, it happens.

~chuckles~ Really? You might want to try that again. :P

No, I read everything you linked to. I think you misunderstand my reference though. I'm not saying there was a 70's ice age. I'm referring to popular belief in that time that there was the beginnings of a cooling trend (which there was, if short-lived). But during that time there was suddenly a growing concern in larger circles that we were causing global cooling.

My point simply being that we need to be careful of jumping to conclusions based on even a 30 year trend when it refers to the ebb and flow of global weather patterns that may span 100's of years. Especially when there is a growing spread in results such as the last 30 years of tree ring data not matching the recorded temps.

For the ferocity that the global warming (now called climate change) groups defend the "fact" that humans are about to destroy the planet if we don't stop polluting today, it would be nice to see more fact. In truth, there are too many factors involved in temperature change to be certain what is causing what. I'm not saying we don't have an impact. That would be naive. But I also think there are some short-sighted solutions being brought to the table.