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I've heard nothing but good things. I will be watching the first to episodes this weekend at my girlfriend's parents place while we hang out for the Easter holiday. Many of the guys I work with were talking about the show very passionately, as if they were inspired, and they were discussing the parallels of what they did back then and what's happening now in our country... I'm excited. HBO always tend to do a good job with these things (I LOVED Deadwood). Back on topic... The 2nd amendment was written when society was much different. They didn't have semi-automatics, they didn't have planes to shoot down, hell... they didn't even have cars. There were no police stations, because nearly EVERYONE lived out in the boonies by themselves. Fighting was done by militia because none of the farmers could risk leaving their land for long to join some centralized army. They farmed, and worked, and stayed with their families, and when something came up which needed shooting, they grabbed their musket and went off with their neighbors as a "militia." They were different times. I'm all for gun rights. I think a ban goes too far. In my mind, though, this is more a question about regulation than it is of rights and freedoms. The government should fear the people, not the other way around, and the constitution at it's heart is intended to protect the freedoms of the populace, not remove them.

You're funny. You talk of proof, yet offer nothing more than appeal to conspiracy and strawman to support your own postion. You're very funny, indeed... and, by funny, I mean hypocritical.

If you want sources, I can even provide the name of the exact pesticide implicated in colony collapse disorder, the method by which that pesticide causes the damange, and the company who makes it, but it's not really on topic here.

I'm not so much pro-pitbull as I am anti-really-stupid-ineffective bans.

Oh, I know. I know who said it too. Thank you though. To the other part of your post, just because it's not toxic to humans does not mean it won't negatively impact other animals. See my example of bees and the colony collapse disorder. If the bees die, we won't be able to grow any foods anyway.

Nor IN your fruit, since those insecticides will leach into the water which is taken up by the plant. There are also indications that the colony collapse disorder in bees is the result of damage to their nervous system from insecticides... "Silly" is personal and subjective... means nothing really, but if I must answer, I'd say, "No, it's not silly at all." Some people who talk about all organics all of the time yet know very little about organics, though... they are often silly.

I don't know who that person was, but he really must be super bad ass. What a killer idea! This is really quite a useful update. Thanks for all of your efforts and for putting this in place Cap'n.

Beautiful. Your first one is still not rendering properly though... Just fyi. Cheers.

Did you mean this? EDIT: Deleted: TDS corrected the latex coding in his post.

Hi voross, Interesting survey. My main feedback is 1) your questions sometime present a false dichotomy. For those issues which have overlap, consider measuring more of a continuum than a this/that question. 2) You seem to focus a lot on cost as opposed to fear, which I think has a lot to do with this issue. 3) Your demographic section has no option under nationality for United States. 4) Your "amount spent on groceries" is in Euro, it might be nice to put in parentheses beside that how those numbers translate into dollars. 5) Your survey is clearly geared toward students since you don't have an option for "own my own home" under "where do you live." As you can see, most of my comments are on your demographics page. Good luck with your project!

Is that "drastically" on the metric system, or IU? My problem with you is the use of vague words to support absolute positions. Please, do tell us specifically which models are underestimating Artic Sea ice and offer the actual amount by which they differ from observation. If you are unable or unwilling, then you really shouldn't be making statements like that I quoted above.

Wow. I'm glad he will still live on through his writing. Wow. Thanks for bringing this to my attention, Pangloss. I may have missed it otherwise.

WARNING: Blatant drive by post with little desire to go searching for the plethora of facts which are actually available to support it... Bush is doing the same thing to the US that he did the Texas Rangers...

While we all want China to change for the better, pissing all over them in a moment of pride like the Olypics is not likely the best way to accomplish that. Every person I've spoken to from China these past several months asks me excitely if I'll get the chance to "go to China this summer to see the Olympics!" It's not "China" we have a problem with, as there are about a billion peole there who are pretty cool. It's the tiny handful in control of the nation who need to "be handled."

In the blogs, no? I liked him already, but I, too, was very impressed today. He really is leading by example IMO. "At at 11:00 AM on a Tuesday, a prominent politician spoke to Americans about race as if they were adults." ~Jon Stewart, The Daily Show <today>

Go to your grocer, ask the produce for as much rotten fruit he can spare, put it in the sun, and walk through with a net in a few days. I'm not sure where you can buy them, but I'm pretty sure it's not hard to breed them.

There are most definitely studies of this nature. I read several when I was in college last time, but that has been a while now. Two people on this site who have been discussing this issue recently are ecoli and paralith. You might watch their posts for some insight. You're spot on with the basic premise though.

ParanoiA, I was just having a little fun with John (as indicated in the post title). Nothing serious intended, except perhaps to raise the level of this dialog through the judicious use of some humor. Now, we could look at this as an evolutionary thing, and explore why humans tend to be aggressive and angry to begin with... We are, after all, primates.

But their data and methods must be consistent and replicable. I challenge the root of your point, since if that were truly the case, you'd see all manner of skeptics presenting studies that global climate change ain't happening. However, when they try, their data and/or methods are most frequently error prone and debunked. Either way, I agree with your other point that it's difficult to consider every variable. That steak on the dinner table had to be cooked, using electricity or gas most of the time. It had to be transported home from the store in the car, using gas. It had to be kept cool in the store using electricity. It took store employees tending to it releasing energy as they moved, and they had to drive to work too. The steak had to be trucked to the store from the slaughterhouse, and the truck runs on deisel. The slaughterhouse uses energy to process the steer, and all of the employees there expend energy while working and also to travel to and from work. The steer had to be trucked to the slaughterhouse from the farm, using more fuel. The farm had to tend to the steer, .... ad infinitum. I didn't even get into all of the resources it takes to raise the steer and keep it healthy from birth to maturity... Yes... It's difficult to consider all variables in such a study, but nothing is impossible.

Yes, and all Asian people eat dogs and cats, and cannot pronounce Rs. Come on... this is 2008, not 1008.

Thanks for the head's up. I'll need to watch out for that.

This has already been done repeatedly. What shall we do now?

There was an incredibly interesting 2 part story on 60 Minutes last night about sleep. Did you know that lack of sleep tends to lead to obesity? I sure didn't! Here's two 10-12 minute segments. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=3942130n&channel=/sections/60minutes/videoplayer3415.shtml http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=3942132n&channel=/sections/60minutes/videoplayer3415.shtml

Why does this matter in politics if it's not the reverend himself who is running for office?

Okay, I might sound like an idiot (I usually do, anyway... it's never stopped me before), but I thought water expanded when it froze? Wouldn't it need to warm up pretty significantly to "expand" in the sense that you mean?