Not sure if it's a security setting, but I can't get that site to load the plugin in IE, period. On my corporate intranet, we have a back end remote management item for all the computers on the domain that is jave-based. No matter how I set the add-on settings for java, the applet loads right up. Restart included.

Everything. I have been continuously testing that fact since a co-worker was the victim of a java exploit. Whether it's disabled or not, IE loads Java exactly the same.

It probably made you feel warm and fuzzy to do so. However, if you now go to a site that is java enabled, you will see that you just accomplished nothing by your efforts. Java is still woefully enabled.

... or pre-install/integrate NoScript.

I have convinced several non-technical people to stop using IE all together when I could conclusively show them that there was no practical way to disable the Java plugin... Choir preaching over.

While Firefox and Chrome allow practical and real disabling of the Java functionality in their browsers, only Chrome offers really practical functionality for plugins (yes, I'm aware there are several other browsers out there that people deeply love, however testing in the above three tend to give proper rendering on all for web elements, so I don't plan on expanding my repertoire).

In Chrome, if the Java (or Windows Media Player, etc.) plugin is requested by a page, users are prompted to give domain specific permanent access to the plugin or allow it for one-time use. As ridiculously problematic as Java is from a security perspective, it is also extremely useful for enterprise-level products that use it exclusively for powerful web-based back ends (Cisco firewalls for one).

And when you find that the main conception that needs to be changed is the idea that there is some material in the scrolls that has been hidden from the public or horribly distorted is simply false, I'm not sure anyone will take the time to amend their preconceived notions. I think the larger disappointments will come when the people who read an article that hyperlinks to a history of the Council of Nicea that immediately contradicts the author's assertion that "the early church dropped most of the languages and most of the text when it decided what Christians would consider "true" from then on" at this council.

I am sure that all of the bishops at this council were just itching to start a government conspiracy to lie to all the people that they sacrificed their body parts for in order to speak news of hope and salvation. It must really take a lot of work to get so many people to be burned in pitch on the sides of streets for their testimony about Jesus Christ in order to help the one burning them spread a huge conspiracy through the ages.

Wing FTP Server takes care of this same issue and is extremely easy to use and to setup. http://www.wftpserver.com/wftpserver.htm Even better, you can set a custom message to reply to these "hammering" attacks and really stick it to them in a passive-aggressive way. Not free or open-source, but very painless to use.

I'm not sure that I can fundamentally make the jump from matters of engineering - that rely on the fact that things are the way the are and do the things they do - to matters of the origins of the cosmos without a few steps laid out in between. If Henry Ford told me that the Earth was created by Martians, I am not required to believe him because I can't understand the intricacy of the internal combustion engine.

Not sure I've heard it stated so that I can take it on science or on faith that the creation of the universe is repeatable and demonstratable. (Though that doesn't mean it hasn't been stated, please correct me if you're more informed)

God intended marriage to emulate the relationship between Jesus Christ and the church. A sacrificial love where one holds the other higher than themselves. It is difficult to even scratch the surface of the image of Christ if intimacy, trust, and selflessness are not a priority. I think a lot of the conversation about marriage is fundamentally flawed between religious conservatives and those who would see equality amongst all who explore the realms of love. Christian marriage is fundamentally based upon a vow before God to be selfless and seek to know His Son more every day of your life through selflessly loving another. Legal marriage is not Christ-centered in any way (all questions of gender aside), so it's sort of hard to speak about two different things with the same word and expect much progress. Being one, I blame Christians for this break down in dialog.

Agreed. It is. However it's beautiful to know beyond any shadow of a doubt that someone loves you.

Would the context of this story be any different if "SSN" were changed to "TID"? I'm pretty sure you can't legally opt out of that.

"The Tax Reform Act of 1986 required parents to list Social Security numbers for each dependent over the age of 5 for whom the parent wanted to claim a tax deduction. Before this act, parents claiming tax deductions were on the honor system not to lie about the number of children they supported. During the first year, this anti-fraud change resulted in seven million fewer minor dependents being claimed, nearly all of which are believed to have involved either children that never existed, or tax deductions improperly claimed by non-custodial parents." (wikipedia)

Aside from creating yet another federal identification number, this seems a reasonable argument for the age of taxing everything.

This seems a bit pessimistic. Coskata is one such potential replacement company that is currently ramping up production of their method for producing practically pure ethanol. Not only can it be done from cheap inputs such as human waste and used tires, but it only costs about $1 per gallon. Further, they are partnered with the automobile makers and not the fuel providers. It seems like some cause for hope from new players in the market. www.technologyreview.com/Biztech/20056/ Further, they plan on licencing their technology so that companies can produce their own fuels from their own byproducts.