My first thought was "OMG! They proved the existence of souls? Talk about burying the lead!"

I don't provide sexual favors to the mentally retarded.

Whoosh!

I'll break my rule and respond, because yours is such a delicious troll.

I replied specifically in the context of Japan's refusal to accept needed medical aid from the U.S. after the 1995 earthquake. You, however, could not have been more over-generalizing, you hypocrite.

I was obviously comparing the acceptance of such negligence to more abusive practices, noting that multiculturalists apologize for a whole range of bad behavior, from neglect to mutilation. And I didn't exempt my own culture from that criticism. Nor did I suggest in the slightest that one culture should "wipe out all the others". You simply made that up. Talk about ranting, pot meet kettle.

Really? I'm being destructive to suggest (suggest, mind you), that we criticize objectively bad behaviour when we see it? Wow, that's really... openminded of you.

Just wondering here... I sent $300 to a reputable non-religious agency that's providing both short and long-term aid to the victims in Japan. While it's a small gesture, I'm guessing it's more than you have done, which is exactly nothing (aside from running your mouth).
Feel free to spew nonsense again, but I'm done with this thread. I can't afford to spend any more of my time educating you.

Here's a good example of why the multiculturalism movement is worthless and destructive. "Well, it's their way, so I can't criticize it." Bullshit. Letting hundreds or thousands more of your own people die because you're "too proud" to accept help is immoral. Leaders who take that course instead of doing what they can to ease their people's misery should be excused from government, and probably prosecuted for criminal malfeasance.

Some people (not parent poster) use this argument to excuse female genital mutilation, the burka, virtual house arrest for women, honor killings, and "The Jersey Shore". I'm not advocating invasion over these horrible "cultural traditions", but can't we at least start with, "that's wrong - you shouldn't be doing that"?

On the bright side, at least in this disaster Japan is accepting help from the world.

Avoid it? Avoid it how? By asking the earth to please not quake? By forecasting the earthquake with an accuracy for which there is no credible method?

No wait, I know - they could have "deficit spent" enough to move all their coastal towns a mile inland, then built a 50 foot wall around the entire country, with gates to load and unload ships at new docking facilities.

Pardon me for getting a little exercised and calling this AC a FUCKING RETARD HEARTLESS BASTARD PIECE OF SHIT.

Yes, I'm jealous that you live in Arizona, with its perpetual Standard Time all year.

And no downsides to Arizona, none at all.

Exactly. The fact is many people enjoy feeding trolls, because it lets them feel superior to that schmuck who's standing there waving his dick in the community's face.

Case in point; Charlie Sheen. The media machine LOVES this troll, because he's feeding THEM, so they want to keep him going as long as people pay attention. And people (real people) are paying attention.
So go ahead, give people advice on disarming trolls. They won't follow it, because trolls are part of the online experience, and most people would miss them if they didn't exist (though lots of those would angrily deny it; see responses to my post).

Flamebait? When Apple is dictating to consumers, producers, and middlemen? There's not a segment of their manufacture and distribution chain that doesn't include some practice that should alarm an objective observer about their current practices, pointing to much worse to come.

The fanboy defense of Apple for most of their existence has been, "Don't like Apple? Don't buy their products. It's not like they're a monopoly." Well, they're getting monopoly-like control over large segments of multiple markets, and the "ooh, shiny" doesn't make up for the damage they're doing to the freedom that the /. crowd seems to be so hard for.

I have to agree... that's pretty mild, considering. He might have said that Apple users are also selfish and shortsighted, slavishly giving marketshare to a company that's going to retard openness, choice, and diversity in the long run.

But he didn't.

Exactly, the new one's not much of an improvement over the old one. It's just Jobs keeping the attention machine running, to (squeeze more blood out of the stone) / (shake a few more coconuts out of the tree) / (fool a few more idiot consumers that *this* is what they need to feel less empty inside).
Pick your own metaphor.

The cell connection would be useful, but remember that Kindles hold 3,500+ books. At 1 per week, that's about 70 years' worth, times what, 2-3 kids sharing each Kindle? So around 140-200 "reader years" per $138 e-reader. Also, if there are, say, 10 Kindles per village with 20 students, that's up to 35,000 different books. Or maybe 1,000 common texts on every Kindle, and 26,000 different books across all Kindles.

I was pretty well educated, and very well read for a kid (nicknames; Poindexter, Shakespeare). I think that's an order of magnitude more books than I consumed through high school.

I have to lie down, this made me dizzy.

Yeah, content cost is the big factor in this equation, but between free, subsidized and donated, they can probably get enough content to put on the devices. For no-frills, I-just-want-to-read, Kindle is a firehose. Fuck magical, fuck shiny.

Tree hugging and global warming discussions? I think you're misapprehending the priorities of this community. I believe they are:

Railing against evil Micro$oft
Gushing about Apple
Decrying copyright and patents as inherently evil (but in a different way than Micro$oft is evil)
Correcting each others' grammar
Complaining about people who correct others' grammar
Making trivial corrections in others' posts that don't affect the content or meaning in any way

Dammit, that was MY plan!

Calm down, cowboy. If true, Zuckerberg not using facebook is hypocritical. (I don't know if it's true - some people posted links to the contrary, I don't care enough to check it out.)

Your nasty little ad hominem attack was way out of proportion to the gp's post. What's really got you angry?