Only in the sense that bigots get relief from making fun of minorities. Otherwise, as someone from NJ, this is some high-level bullshit that should be mocked.

I don't doubt the us gov is capable of false flag. But if they were to make a false flag attempt, why something so lame?

So Twitter was rated #1 by the EFF on resisting government warrant(less) data grabs and the NYT has recently started tipping over to the side of working with Snowden and Greenwald.

Other than that, I can't see any motivation to pick those two high-profile American targets.

Sure it's a race, but it's not much of one.

And if either of them 'won', then humanity wins. What's the overhead in running the contest? This makes no sense based on the given excuses.

The problem with this measurement is that it's only to be expected for there to be less activity at the time. When you take into account the heavy militarized police/military/occupational force that flooded into Boston, you have to expect that social communications and outings will decrease significantly.

That and the effect of an illegal martial law being imposed and having troops in the streets pointing rifles at homeowners would have on former military suffering from PTSD.

The only self-benefit is to my karma.

So you don't feel completely ambivalent about making these donations?

I'm not saying you should - "giving is its own reward" is probably a more ancient saying than modern English - just that being charitable makes most people feel good.

Except that altruism is not logical.

It's extremely hard to find an example of pure altruism that doesn't have benefits for one's self or family/community.

Agreed. I just spent the morning finishing up (I hope...) working out a contract between a user (corporation) and an open source project's authors to get some fixes/enhancements done that they need, but are going to go out publicly (no core competency concerns there).

So, um, yeah, gimme call next time - maybe you just need somebody who will manage the process. It's probably taken me 12 hours so far to get this setup, so it's not simply a matter of shooting off an e-mail and a check. There are concerns about disclosure, access, ownership, service levels, length of term, etc.

The human cultures that are most exposed to modern scientific education are also those with birth rates below replacement levels. So, for whatever reason, scientific education is co-related with the decline of human civilization. If it leads to the decline of human cultures, it is not moral.

They're also those with effective/available birth control, female equality, and education.

Don't worry, though - as soon as we build our AI's and fusion reactors, humans will have more time to boink, pursue art, and raise families. It takes science, though, if you want to do it without famine and pestilence.

I've used OmniPage ... many many years ago, and their OCR engine wasn't bad back in the day - but couldn't comment nowadays.

It used to be a great seller back in the early 90's when I was working Mac tech support. The odd thing is, I tried it out a few years ago (c. 2008) on a modern Windows machine and it seemed to be just as accurate as when I used it on an SE/30 in '93.

Yahoo sports, particularly the fantasy sports, are pretty well trafficked. There's no competition from Google.

I head a guy describe the system that he uses at, IIRC CBS Sports - and it involved paying a hundred plus dollars to CBS to organize a 'league' with his friends.

On the Internet, even. I don't know if Yahoo is charging, but apparently there is real money involved, and what sounds like a Freshman CS project running the 'matches' on the backend.

Yeah, but the rebels don't have nerve gas. Oh, wait.

"Do you remember all that talk about the NSA before the Russo-Syrian War started? Yeah, me neither."

So he's got 48 hours to notify, and 90 days before he supposedly needs authorization.

No, and no again - this one needs to die. That's only if the operation qualifies.

See specifically Section 1541c. It's an easy one to remember if you ever owned a Commodore. ;)

(c) Presidential executive power as Commander-in-Chief; limitation
The constitutional powers of the President as Commander-in-Chief to introduce United States Armed Forces into hostilities, or into situations where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances, are exercised only pursuant to
(1) a declaration of war,
(2) specific statutory authorization, or
(3) a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces.

Which one of these fits Syria? Or Libya, Yemen, Mali, Ethiopia, Pakistan, etc.?

Correction, they abdicated that responsibility in 1941, the last time they chose to exercise that authority. Well, perhaps 1947, but that is splitting hairs.

Not going to War every few years is not abdicating that responsibility - it's taking it seriously.

Funding those wars, without authorization, is, of course, major hypocrisy.

why we keep spending money interfering with civil wars 1/2 way around the world??

To transfer money from the poor and middle class of the country to the operators of the military-industrial complex. Ike spelled this out, what, 50 years ago?