My guess is that the NSA has so much dirt on every senator and congressperson that they basically told them "vote for it or go to prison"... Nothing else would explain Obama's reversal of position against FISA before he became President. Overnight, he switched positions from staunchly against it to staunchly for it. It's the canary in the coal mine...
So, what does "DEA" really mean? I think it means "Drug Enablement Administration" since they have been just so successful at spending billion$ of our tax dollars to increase drug use in this country!
NO! NO! NO! This just invites fraud and other "bad" things! Any "scientific" paper that relies upon paid reviews should be considered suspect and unpublishable. My father was a physicist who published significantly. His articles were all peer reviewed appropriately. He must be rolling over in his grave (if he had one - after donating his body to medical science, the remains were cremated and scattered over the Rocky Mountains) about this! FWIW, he was a Guggenheim fellow, director of NCAR and the NSF, and chairman of the dept. of physics of two major universities, amongst other stuff.
Real science requires close scrutiny, and paid reviews don't do that! The intention of the reviewers may be good (get paid for their time, but still perform due diligence), but the possibility for corruption cannot be constrained - it must be eliminated!
I think this is definitive proof that anyone who wants to server, or does serve, in government (at whatever level) is not to be trusted to have:
1. A sense of humor. 2. Any sense of ethics or propriety. 3. The ability to properly ensure reasonable control of the finances we have entrusted to their ministrations.
"That raises an interesting ethical question. Should people who have never had their genome sequenced be told the results of this kind of computer-based analysis?"
I think not, but they SHOULD be given the opportunity to find out if they so wish. People can stay ignorant if that is their wish, but they should also have the option to find out what science says about this.
This cruft is what happens when clueless idiots are allowed to write and pass laws. There should be an IQ test, as well as a tech savvy test, applied to all legislators before they are allowed to write or pass laws, especially tech-related ones.
Actually, I disagree Mike about whether it was as powerful as it could have been
It was informative, and the entire end segment about "dick pics" really illustrated just how much these programs "suck up"... I give Oliver, and Snowden, a two thumbs up for this.
I worked at ComputerLand in the Silly Valley back in the early 1980's and had one of these (Osborne 1) to take home and play with. Useful for the time, but the tiny screen was a major PITA. Eventually, when I left CL I bought a Compaq Plus to take with me as I was becoming a serious programming engineer. I think my right arm is about 5" longer than the left now from hauling that all over the world! That said, it was a very usable system, and I was able to connect a good external monitor so I could use it as a desk top system at home. Those were the days when a 10MB disc and 512K of RAM was top of the line!
My last laptop was a Lenovo Carbon X1 - weighed about as much as a feather, had a battery that would last the day, 8GB of RAM, a dual core 3+GHz i7 processor, plus a 250GB SSD. Ah, progress!
"Has anyone patented a method and system for self-inflicted shaming for being overly sensitive to someone pointing out your flaws?". I'll have to work on that! I do have one patent for adaptive computer systems.
I got a call from AT&T today to try and get me to allow a "free upgrade" my business U-Verse account from 25mbps to 45mbps. After twisting the rep's arm a bit, it seems that the rate would go up about 75% for my internet service! I told him to fark off and leave me alone!
I guess Feinstein will next attempt to censor my brain. After all, as an AP chemistry student (and later chemistry graduate student) I learned how to make such things as nitroglycerin, phosgene gas, and other "innocuous" materials...
Back in the day before the Internet and personal computers or video games, when I was a young teenager, I was allowed to read Lady Chatterley's Lover, The Kamasutra of Vatsayana (with lots of graphic illustrations), and other classics of the genre. Did it ruin me as a man? Well, I have been married to the same woman for almost 41 years (in 5 days) and have 2 great grandchildren, so you go figure!
There are lies, damned lies, and then there are statistics... The people behind these bogus campaigns against net-neutrality are somewhere beyond statics, into the realm of "let's make this up as we go"!
This is the modern version of Catch-22. Joseph Heller must be laughing his ass off in whatever universe he ended up in! Here is a great synopsis of the novel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch-22
My grandson, who designs and builds from scratch, autonomous drone fixed wing and rotary craft, could fix these idiots up in a trice! Yet the govt. spends a gazillion $$ on useless cruft built by the Multimega Galacticorp!
On the post: Crunch Time For Surveillance: PATRIOT Act Renewal Vote Next Month A Key Metric In The Fight Against Surveillance
Why no debate?
On the post: EFF, Human Rights Watch Sue The DEA Over Mass Surveillance Program
DEA?
On the post: District Court Says You Can (Probably) Photograph Police, But Only With A Regular Camera, Not A Drone
Would they complain?
On the post: Is It Acceptable For Academics To Pay For Privatized, Expedited Peer Review?
Paid peer reviews?
This just invites fraud and other "bad" things! Any "scientific" paper that relies upon paid reviews should be considered suspect and unpublishable. My father was a physicist who published significantly. His articles were all peer reviewed appropriately. He must be rolling over in his grave (if he had one - after donating his body to medical science, the remains were cremated and scattered over the Rocky Mountains) about this! FWIW, he was a Guggenheim fellow, director of NCAR and the NSF, and chairman of the dept. of physics of two major universities, amongst other stuff.
Real science requires close scrutiny, and paid reviews don't do that! The intention of the reviewers may be good (get paid for their time, but still perform due diligence), but the possibility for corruption cannot be constrained - it must be eliminated!
On the post: University Student Government Can't Take A Joke; Pulls Paper's Funding After 'Offensive' April Fool's Issue
Serve in government?
1. A sense of humor.
2. Any sense of ethics or propriety.
3. The ability to properly ensure reasonable control of the finances we have entrusted to their ministrations.
On the post: Should People Be Told Key Results Of Genetic Tests They Never Took?
What a great question!
I think not, but they SHOULD be given the opportunity to find out if they so wish. People can stay ignorant if that is their wish, but they should also have the option to find out what science says about this.
On the post: Fighting Toddler 'Porn Addiction,' UK Lawmakers Demand Porn Sites Include Age Checks Or Face Closure
Clueless idiots and the law
On the post: John Oliver Takes On Government Surveillance With Help From Ed Snowden And... Some Dick Pics
Actually, I disagree Mike about whether it was as powerful as it could have been
On the post: This Week In Techdirt History: March 29th - April 4th
Ah, back to the future!
My last laptop was a Lenovo Carbon X1 - weighed about as much as a feather, had a battery that would last the day, 8GB of RAM, a dual core 3+GHz i7 processor, plus a 250GB SSD. Ah, progress!
On the post: USPTO Demands EFF Censor Its Comments On Patentable Subject Matter
Well, I'll work on that...
On the post: AT&T's Title II Tap Dance Fails To Derail FTC Throttling Lawsuit
AT&T and "free" upgrades.
On the post: What Do You Do When Preserving Evidence Is Labeled 'Possession' And Destroying It Is A Felony?
Catch-22
On the post: FBI Uncovers Another Of Its Own Plots, Senator Feinstein Responds By Saying We Should Censor The Internet
Censor my brain?
On the post: UK School District To Report On Parents Allowing Kids To Play More Mature Video Games
Back in the day
On the post: Georgia Supreme Court: No, Writing Mean Things About Copyright Trolling By Linda Ellis Is Not 'Stalking'
Unfortunately
On the post: Massive Anti-Net Neutrality E-mail Campaign Shows Signs Of Faking Many Signatures
Statistics
On the post: Comcast, CenturyLink Give New Home Owner Kafka-esque Introduction To U.S. Broadband Market
Can you spell Catch-22?
On the post: DOJ Inspector General: ATF, FBI's Drones Worthless, Expensive And Completely Mismanaged
Why are we not surprised?
On the post: Feds Investigating Silk Road Accused Of Stealing Bitcoin, Abusing Gov't Power, Issuing Fake Subpoenas
I can hear the shovels
On the post: Sanity: Trademark Suit Rules That Florida Pizza Joints Don't Compete With The NJ Turnpike
You too can become a highly paid idiot
Of course, not all lawyers are idiots - mine isn't even though he plays the banjo! :-)
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