Another option is improving them.

Try a weekly wrap-up of the most interesting news stories and editor voted top commends (Interesting, Funny, Informative, etc.)

Slashdot is (or at least presumes to be) important in the tech world. Get interviews with some interesting people from tech giants. Not the usual corporate talking heads, but the developers/engineers building the tools & toys that we find interesting. Heck, NPR's planet money team tracked down the "hoverboard" manufacturers - if some finance wonks & interns from NPR can pull that off I imagine slashdot can manage a half-way decent investigation on the origin of some devices/technology that would interest /. and maybe even a wider audience.

Since I don't have any mod points want to add my voice to the chorus supporting this.

http://wh.gov/iqd4M

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me ... how many times is it now that this was promised?

Wish I had mod points.

If posting to FB can be 'holding out' I imagine that using an app to publish publicly puts this in the illegal territory.

So either make a requirement that all food additives follow guidelines to provide "safe levels of consumption and health benefits" or let consumers and corporations work it out on their own. Targeting individual food products is as productive as targeting individual financial products or individual companies in regulation. It just creates more work ... oh; nevermind, figured that out.

I once had a network admin compliment me for "hacking" into his server when I copied a file there for him.

My coworker and I laughed and pointed out that it's not hacking when you know root. Granted I'd just complained I my user account was denied access so I can understand the confusion.

Anecdotal proof that even among IT workers sometimes sysadmin privileges are mysterious.

This must be modded up by others that didn't RTFA ...

The author would agree with you that we need competent nutritional education and the point is that rather than throw in the towel because it's a complicated issue we need to do something.

He prescribes more research and updating public policy based on current research.

Also: the consumer is only 1/2 the problem. Food companies spend millions advertising junk food, which increases consumer demand for said food, creating an artificial feedback loop. We could create a similar feedback loop for healthy (i.e. non-junk) food but doing so is costly. Not just in terms of advertising dollars.

There's lost profits when selling healthy food at a lower margin than junk food.
There's lost profits when people no longer need to purchase health care products/services due to weight related illness.
There's lost tax money on junk food vs. healthy food (in some countries.)

We've created an economic feedback loop that encourages unhealthy lifestyles - it pays better.

Note: I do not think (nor have I seen evidence of) a conspiracy. I'm talking about economic forces that we can take control over if we wish. It will take many different groups working together to achieve this goal. Consumers, government, and industry need to work together and against the economic incentives.

Not only does this sound melodramatic you only need to look to Syria/Egypt/Libya to see how bad of an idea violence is.

I fail to understand why so many Americans have given up on our representative Republic. You want to fight back, go vote (and get your friends to vote) for someone who will work to change the system. And when they're corrupted vote in someone else. And keep voting out corrupted politicians until the expense of corrupting them outweighs the benefit.

It will take work (you might say "eternal vigilance") but currently America has the government we deserve.

Look into http://pandaunite.org/

As a resident of the Chicago metropolitan area I'm curious what you consider 'Chicago economics.'

If you're referring to corruption that's a problem as old as civilization itself. Crediting Chicago with originating it does little but boost the already over-inflated egos of Chicago politicians.

I imagine with a little extra funding the USPTO could hire folks like Joel in order to find prior art for these patents.

The issue, as always with government services, is funding.

Perhaps we should consider a frequent filer fine. That would avoid increasing the costs for small businesses or independent engineers.

Alternately we could decide as a society that all of us chipping in some more money each year to improve the USPTO is a reasonable sacrifice to make, but that strikes me as less likely and it punishes the many for the sins of the few.

Not certain the argument that 'freedom of movement' equates to 'automobile license' would hold up in court.

Not that it matters, the UN hasn't kicked China out and they still require permits to move between districts. That strikes me as a tad bit more restrictive than calling a driver's license a 'privilege.' (A privilege now required to vote in Texas.)

I don't see what you do. Granted I've not done a scientific study, but here's what I've seen:

1) Most Americans I talk to that are critical of US policy don't hate the US. Rather, they want to shine a light on problems in the US that they see as at best ignored or at worst denied. The end-game is an improvement of the US (making it better) rather than simply "hating" on their own country.

2) As most ./ers are American its easier for them to understand a story through their American lens. It may be a bit frustrating, but unless there's a demographic shift on the web-page I see little possibility of it changing. In addition, a quick looks at newsmap.jp shows that the nations they track (via google) are primarily interested in local news as well. Meaning that there's a good chance that if ./ was dominated by another nation then most comments would lead back to shared experiences among that community.