Anecdote:

My wife was allowed to take her yogurt through security in her carry-on, even though it was more then 3oz of yogurt. The reason was she had put it in the freezer before the trip. Since it was still frozen, it didn't count as a liquid, and therefore wasn't subject to the usual rules.

Your TSA experience may vary, since there's certainly inconsistency in how rules are applied.

It's funny that you ask this, because the Supreme Court just heard a case on precisely this topic. Read the ScotusBlog analysis on what the Justices argued below:
http://www.scotusblog.com/2011/11/argument-recap-for-gps-get-a-warrant/

Honestly, I wish I understood the filesystem better.

I came from the Windows world with very little programming experience. Even though I've used Ubuntu as my other OS since 10.04 (and experimented before then), I still don't understand the filesystem beneath it. Everything is in something like /bin, /etc, /lib /home, or some other very short folder. I could at least make the connection that /home is for my stuff, because that's where all my stuff is saved by default. But just about everything else is a mystery.

When I install a program, where does it go? In Windows, I've been trained to look in the "Programs" folder. In Linux, I have no idea where it went. Did it go into /bin or /lib? Or somewhere else? What are those separate directories for? Why is the .conf in a different place than the program? If I want to install something myself before it hits the distro's repository, where do I put it?

What Ubuntu lacks (along with just about every other distro aiming to convert Windows users) is some built-in way to teach users how to do the things they used to do in Windows. I don't mean things like "how to open a Word doc" -- if you can't find LibreOffice in the menu or use an online doc-editing tool, Linux is beyond you. But advanced users of Windows could use the boost to get them on the same level as beginner-to-normal Linux users.

I have thought of writing some kind of book or website tutorial on just this topic several times, but I can't -- I don't know the answers to these questions. If someone or some group did this, that would help make Ubuntu a more mainstream desktop OS.

An article I keep bookmarked for these occasions:
Divided Government Is Best For the Market by Donald Luskin. He basically does the analysis and comes to the same conclusion you drew anecdotally. When government is divided and gridlocked, the economy does best.

I have really enjoyed reading /. and all the realms it opened my eyes to, from Linux to patent trolls to politics to OMG Ponies!!!.

The thing I will probably .miss the most is being able to reply to Anonymous Coward who bothers to question, "Is this News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters????" Pointing out that it was your post on your site and you can post whatever you want always had some sweet justice to it. Now I'll just have to stop feeding the trolls.

The best of luck to you in whatever you do.

Everything that you said could be used, word for word, to argue against the Democrats pushing through what many now call "ObamaCare". Based on opinion polls, a majority of American voters was against this change. Procedural tactics were used to squeeze the legislation into something that could get enough votes to pass, and out-right bribery in some cases (See "Louisiana Purchase"). The promises made to the elderly through Medicare don't stand up the liabilities we now owe. The debt incurred by these changes is perhaps not as great a financial risk as defaulting on the debt, but we've yet to see just what will happen if it does. You could easily argue that those voting in favor cared more about re-election (or were retiring and hence wouldn't be held accountable in an election) than ensuring financial stability in the US.

Your language could also apply to a number of other causes, though we'd stretch the "financial risk" side in doing so: Environmentalists, Defense Hawks, Warmongers, Unions, Corporations, "Big" Industries, Wall Street, etc. All of these in some fashion end up "ramming" (and jamming) things through Congress and down our proverbial throats.

What you want, but don't yet know you want, is more limited government. Take the power away, and the abuse of that power is also removed. If that power remains in Congress, it will be abused in Congress.

The Tea-Party Republicans ran on platforms of cutting spending and lowering the debt. Can you blame them for not turning on their constituents and breaking promises to pass legislation their home districts are against? I thought we were tired of politicians making campaign promises, then breaking them in office.

Some conservative opinions do find an open audience on Slashdot. Now, if we had another evolution/creationism thread, you would see very few pro-creationism comments modded up. But in a lot of political threads, any comment on how awesome Ron Paul is will get modded up. Then again, Ron Paul isn't "conservative", he's libertarian. Libertarian views certainly get mod points.

While its nice to see Lenovo offering those higher resolutions, neither HD+ nor FHD is available for under 1000 quid. Considering he used have better than FHD before, it sure would be nice if new computers weren't a downgrade.

I absolutely feel your pain. When purchasing a new laptop, I was coming from a 14.1" Thinkpad T43 with a resolution of 1400 x 1050 (it went higher, but you had to scroll). I wanted something better than 1366 x 768 resolution, but with every manufacturer I had to go to a 17.3" screen to get it. I ended up with a huge "laptop" just to get 1600 x 900. It is frustrating to lose so much vertical space to gain some horizontal that I really don't need anyway (few web pages actually use that wide screen space well). Some games will leverage it, but I'd have been much happier with a 4:3 ratio with better resolution.