The irony is tickling, that while reading this article on Slashdot's website, I saw an ad for a free software download of some random vaporware. Naivety is lucrative, apparently! But good on these guys at How-To Geek for getting to the bottom of the matter here. Thanks!

It's annoying how members of American government, media, and industry organizations frequently take turns unilaterally accusing country X or Y for trying to steal secrets or information for US companies. Of course they're trying! So are we! The U.S. probably tops the list of countries whose citizens or organizations are trying to steal U.S. tech secrets. Exhibit A: Apple vs. Google. I suppose someone will argue that at least we don't have to worry about American companies or governments using those secrets against our own citizens. But. that. would. be. hilarious. And wrong.

As a scientist with a pet interest in astrology (REAL astrology, involving precise dates and times for astronomical 'events', not two-sentence daily horoscopes), I find myself deeply disappointed by the preponderance of astrology skeptics here who seem to take it for granted that astrology is a baseless vocation devoid of any scientific merit. As probably one of the earliest human scientific activities (by 'scientific' here I mean repeated observations involving a limited set of changing variables and careful recording or tracking of outcomes), astrology seems to me to deserve serious attention. As an activity conducted before 'we knew what we know now', yet after we'd already developed our enormous pattern-recognizing cortex, astrology really seems to deserve a second look now by the scientific community, with all of our advanced analytical methods, and our means for controlling against variation among the population sample. I find myself shocked at how often people who claim to be "defending science" do not use evidence to back up their claims. I do claim to be a repository for such evidence. I can only vouch for the uncanny correspondence between my life events (since I began following my astrological self 15 years ago) and those predicted by the precise arrangement of astronomical bodies. If anyone happens to know of any scientifically valid research looking into the utility or accuracy of truly astrological claims, whether those results support or debunk the basis of astrology, please share!

Gun control won't fix criminals, but it might fix crime. Making it hard for someone with a criminal or psychiatric record to procure a weapon won't diminish their desire to use the weapon, but it might lead to fewer people actually being shot.

I don't think most of us know anymore what the real consequences were, are, or will be of constant snooping and surveillance. What can we tangibly be outraged about? It seems to me that the most parsimonious, and enduring, solution to this perpetual cat-and-mouse game of information-hiders and information-seekers, is to make EVERYTHING public. No one has an advantage if all things are made public AND (this is key), the information is freely accessible. And luckily, we are living in an age of very eager amateur communities of citizen activists, who are monitoring the branches of government, monitoring corporations, monitoring the environment, monitoring media outlets, in real time and in critical ways. These groups will only grow in value, and will fold in the perpetual co-snooping into their tasks, to make sure the NSA does not have any particular advantage over the rest of the world's population. The question of privacy, and how to protect, will become moot.

Nothing will compare to the comfort and "home-i-ness" of a SmartHome..A stove-top that composes and records your exact recipes as you toss in (what to you are) random amounts of various ingredients. You can just say outloud what you're putting in, get the exact recipe, rate it, group it, and have it sent to your vacation house (or your boss's house) at a moment's notice.. Have lighting and temperature control (humidity control, from your home's green-room) also easily saveable, vocally and "scratch pad" modifiable, [scratch pad or infra-red keyboard will be small hand-held or implantable device, which creates a data-entering zone on any surface you have around. Or it can be a scratch pad that you write on with some special escribulator... your typing/writing gets perceived by the beaming device, saved, and then wirelessly transmitted to the SmartHome], and transferrable to other properties (or only those in your "neighborhood"). The possibilities are endless..The technology that will really send this off will be standards-legislation to ensure global validity and universality of the memory and internet functions that essentially make-up SmartHome technology. Then they can be reliably incorporated into every architectural and construction activity with ease..