They blew it up! Why else would the ancients have referred to Mars as the planet of war? It all makes so much sense.

That was my point, however poorly made. The summary's sensationalist tone implied that the sentence was outrageous, but neglected to mention the other possible repercussions. If he was avoiding a three-strikes law as you point out, then it was a good deal.

Because no one would "plead guilty" in exchange for a 15 year sentence. That's not much of a plea bargain. The article mentioned seizures of weapons as well. Missouri has some form of "three strikes" law, which uses the phrase "prior and persistent offender." One wonders whether this sentence was lighter than what might have resulted had he been charged for gun possession.

The point is that people kept doing stupid shit with the magnets despite having been extensively warned NOT to stupid shit. One quote states: "The warnings were not effective." So we should banning matches, because people still do stupid shit with matches. The legal question is whether these magnets are inherently dangerous. They clearly are not, imho. Dynamite, gasoline...these are examples of inherently dangerous products. But this company has small resources to fight the good fight, and more critically, no pro-magnet-toys lobby.

I get forwarded so many *fake* scamming stories from my mom...now I get to create an e-mail from a real one. Thanks, Slashdot! My mom appreciates it.

Computer "viruses" as we know them are really more like computer "bacteria", whereas this concept is a bit more like a real virus.

Could this be what you are recalling? http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Stolen_From_Apple.txt&characters=Steve%20Capps&sortOrder=Sort%20by%20Date&detail=high&showcomments=1

Did anyone actually read the ruling? The police got warrants from a judge for every step of this surveillance of these suspected drug runners. Please stop with the knee-jerk cynicism. This is no different than what the police have been empowered to do for years. Nothing to see here.

Why they didn't upgrade the gosh darn firmware *before* the launch?

Agree with the above - Let's have a little disclosure here - more than likely, the attorneys representing the plaintiff are schooling in fashioning class action lawsuits. This "plaintiff" is likely a stand-in until the attorneys move to certify the class. If allowed by the court, the case will settle for $X millions, with the attorneys taking their 1/3 contingency. If the class is not certified, the case will go away. In the end, I suspect the attorneys here are little different than your common patent troll.

And to think that cat hungry for cheezburger started us down this road....

How about Yahoo buying Netflix ? Get back in the game against Google-tube, Amazon and Apple.

It's kind of like that Far Side...Just substitute "Higgs Boson" for "Ginger" and you'll get the idea. http://tinypic.com/r/2144k8w/6

That's gotta be a big disappointment for the big Russian - http://www.hulu.com/watch/124975

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=jonathan+pater