I do not envy Mr. Weaver in this case. IANAL but as I understand Canadian libel law, not only must he prove false claims were made, he must also prove they did damage to his reputation. So he will essentially be required in open court to trash himself.

In addition, I believe this sort of lawsuit is counter productive. I agree that the science should stand on its own, and now, despite his lawyers claims that the libel has 'gone viral,' the supposedly libelous story will witness a new level of exposure.

Also, according to the article, he is suing the paper, three writers and will attempt to sue commentors on the paper's website. I say to him, good luck.

Maybe just me, but (XP / Google chrome) when I highlight text on the new KDE site, it has a faint aura around the letters. Very cool

The article doesn't mention http://www.sharedtalk.com/ - a free service offered by Rosetta Stone that allows you to chat via text or voice with other people. You enter your native languages and practicing languages, and find people to talk to. Works quite well.

I've been meaning to get through some more rosetta stone mandarin lessons...

If you're interested in mandarin in particular, this guy also has some cool info including a list of the 3000 most used characters, ranked by how common they are. Supposedly 3000 is the magic number for reading your average Chinese newspaper. http://www.zein.se/patrick/3000char.html

I'm allergic to flour, you insensitive clod!
That being said, The Joint in Victoria, BC, Canada, North America makes a wicked potato crust.

Can we tie it into this somehow? http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/blaise_aguera_y_arcas_demos_photosynth.html

As hard as it is for this crowd to hear, Microsoft is very much synonymous with technology for those who have no clue. Unfortunately, many of those people still hold a great deal of sway in the `real world` of politics and corporations.
If I was the US military realizing I had no control over the internet and freaking out, the next best way I can think of to dominate global communication again is to create my own, slightly different internet, where the differences are mostly to do with the level of control I have over it.
Then all I need to do is get everyone else to start using my network, and a good way to start is with the big corporations whose interests already somewhat align with my own.

whoops, forgot I had that foil hat on, never mind

I can't believe nobody has mentioned this petition yet. http://www.petitionproject.org/ 31,000 scientists including 9000 PhDs who aren't yet convinced that we're even harming the planet, let alone humans. I think public debate is always a good thing.

Mod parent up. This is exactly right. Hundreds of accidents are caused every day by perfectly sober people who are just terrible drivers to begin with. Why should I be held to a higher standard because I was actually a better driver at some previous point. Shouldn't the definition of acceptable safety be uniform across the board?

I don't think I've seen any other government websites that don't use the .gc.ca domain. Why is this different I wonder.

How bout an alarm clock that lights up a bulb slowly over a half hour. I've been looking for a good schem for one of those for like a month now.

Lloyd: That's a lovely accent you have. New Jersey?
Woman: Austria.
Lloyd: Austria! Well, then. G'day mate! Let's put another shrimp on the barbie!
Woman: Let's not.

Is this a joke? I remember laughing in high school physics about the absurdity of electrolysing water into hydrogen and oxygen, and then recombining it again in an attempt to have a net gain of energy from the process. It would be a perfect solution if not for that pesky first law of thermodynamics.

Sat on a chesterfield, perhaps?

There is a lab at school with about 30 boxes all running scientific linux but each one is named after a different distro... kubuntu, fedora, yellowdog etc etc. Why? I suppose someone thought it would be funny to those in the know and confusing as hell to anyone trying to learn linux. Took me a few days even.