Um.... wait....
Who in this scenario are you suggesting represents the police force???

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An almost endless series of scientific studies have thoroughly refuted the null hypothesis. The proportion of homophobes who are homosexual is strongly different from the proportion of homosexuality the general population. Homophobes are several times more likely than the general public to have an erectile response to gay porn, to spend more time looking at gay porn images when given a variety of images, and to have a faster reaction time for homosexual terms when when the test primed them for self-identification.

For example in this study two thirds of non-homophobic men showed no erectile response to a gay porn video, while 80% of homophobic men did have an erectile response.

Homophobes being active or repressed gay is a cliche because it's typically true, especially among the loudest most driven anti-gay crusaders. There is a reason they're driven.

Other research has found that such individuals are also highly likely to have been raised in very authoritarian and repressive homes. In such a home it would be emotionally dangerous or even physically dangerous for a child to express any homosexual inclination. In such a situation it becomes a survival mechanism for a child to develop an intense hostile internal repression of homosexual inclinations. This internal hostile repression is then directed outward at anyone and anything that threatens to evoke their internal repression.

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I will tell you, it is three nominees. Snowden, Malala, and the - what's the third one there? Let's see. OK. Snowden, Malala , and...
The third nominee, Snowden, Malala, and, let's see. I can't. The third one, I can't. Sorry.
Oops.

But whoever it is ain't winning, because whatever they did was like totally lame compared to Snowden exposing U.S. government spying and Malala getting shot in the head for wanting girls for go to school.

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Muahahahaha.

Those are MY jellyfish. With with frikin laser beams attached to their heads.
Except the lasers fell off.... because have you ever tried attaching something to a jellyfish?

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Malala gets this one hands-down. Both made very important statements we must pay attention to, but a fucking headshot beats hanging out in a Russian airport IMHO.

I disagree, strongly. Have you actually listened to her speeches? Sample:

"If you want to see peace in Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan; if you want to end the war; to fight against the war; then instead of sending guns send books,â

Riiiiiiiiiiight. The only reason she's so popular is because she's a harmless photo-op for politicians who are sitting around doing noting. While everyone is happy to talk about little girls not getting to go to school because the Taliban blew up their school, nobody seems interested in the widespread murders of civilian boys and men, or conscription.

Most people think there's this massive imbalance in literacy rates. It's about 9%, between men and women.

That's unfortunate, but it hardly compares to the mass worldwide surveillance and conspiracies - or the courage required to acquire all those documents, leave your life behind, and kick a world power in the teeth.

As Bowden goes on to point out, if you aren't a US citizen, you have no protection whatsoever from PRISM.

Um, and if I'm a citizen, I'm protected from prism? Nuh uh.

Oh, you thought any of that was going to stop? You're adorable.

No, the only things that are going to stop are the ones Republicans don't like.

Low light means you want the largest sensor well size you can (ie biggest individual-sized pixel), and a wide aperture lens. A few P&S cameras have both, but you're better off with an actual DSLR.

In terms of a body: the Panasonic GH2 is pretty popular among videographers for quality and controls; there are a bunch of firmware hacks out for it. If you don't mind not having video, you can pick up a used Canon 40D for peanuts, and it's a fantastic camera, and close to your price range.

In terms of lenses, you'll want the widest aperture lens you can afford. The simple/cheap way to do this is a fixed (prime) lens; figure out what focal length you need (for non-photographers, the "mm" in "100mm lens", aka "zoom factor".) Canon and Nikon both, for example, sell a 50mm f/1.8 lens that costs about $50-60. Even with the crop factor, might not be quite enough for your purposes, however.

A few days ago I saw an interesting comment about alternative fuels that re-cast the issue for me.

Namely: they're a distraction. By focusing on the "greenness" of the fuel for cars, be it gas, ethanol, hydrogen, CNG, electricity...we ignore the problem of operation space and storage space (not to mention, the inefficiency, energy-wise, of moving 2 tons of metal just to move one person.) As population grows, we don't have space for everyone to bop around by themselves in their car, nor do we have the space to put them when they're not in use. Bloomberg figured this out a couple of years ago, for example, and hence his strong push of cycle infrastructure in NYC, to great result.

Sure, more cars = not a problem in the middle of Nebraska. But in any metropolitan area, traffic is an enormous burden, and we cannot just throw more pavement at the problem. It's well known that adding lanes doesn't add capacity. We also don't have room for all these cars to park, at least not without paving every square inch in sight.

We need to get people out of their cars. That means higher gas taxes (which haven't been adjusted in decades), car-sharing systems, legal protection for pedestrians and cyclists, and infrastructure spending on pedestrian walkways, cycleways, usable long distance/regional/local public transit (and ending the insistence that public transit pay for itself, something "private" road/infrastructure users aren't expected to do). For example: it is *idiotic* that you cannot take luggage or a bicycle with you on the entire Amtrak northeast corridor.

Funding alternative fuels is fine, but don't do it if you won't fund alternative transportation infrastructure as well. Imagine what $2BN (what Obama wants to spend on "alternative fuels") can buy in terms of cycling and pedestrian infrastructure.

Dogs are mostly interested in being good pack animals and pleasing the alpha. When your handler is pleased by getting to search vehicles/bags/etc...

I'm almost completely convinced that police dogs are merely a slight sophistication of "Hey look, *smash*, your taillight is out."

Do rats have such social capabilities?

It is actually in the Police Stateâ(TM)s interest to let everyone know that everything you write or say everywhere is being surveilled.

How so? She doesn't spell this out, and I didn't get it from what you wrote either. Why would it be in the police state's best interest to have their activities known? And if it is in their best interest, why would they go to the trouble of having Snowden disclose it in the style he has, rather than simply announcing it?

This method is mÃfÆ'à © complÃfÆ'à throughly cromulent! I always use Google Translate to exÃfÆ'à © cuter all my messages through Slashdot franÃfÆ'à Ãf  ais Ãf then English. You can not tell me mÃfÆ'à  at all.

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Someone please tell me this is an Onion story.

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That means there will come a day when it's every person, and then two years later...
Whoa! Duuuude! That's like totally Trippy!

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