They probably are, and if they aren't they *will*. It is inevitable that a system made for censoring will eventually be abused... In Australia the list of censored sites leaked once and had several legitimate sites on it. This is why we need Wikileaks, Openleaks or any organization that helps leak these kinds of things because otherwise we would never find out about this kind of abuse! And we need evidence of the inevitable widespread abuse to fight these kinds of dangerous censorship, just warning ahead of time doesn't seem to work when you are labeled a terrorist pedophile...

l

A meme is an idea that spreads, and an inherent part or 'building block' of our culture and civilization.
What you describe are internet memes, a distinct subset of memes that spread virally over the internet with a less serious tone but a part of our culture nonetheless.

TL

You're kidding right? If China did that we would all be doomed... America's financial and foreign policy (both are closely related) are in no way a good long-term plan.

Public/private key pairs... not rocket science, but I must admit close...

For master encryption keys anything other than offline physically secure storage is a risk that is too high... The extra hassle of having a guy physically go to the storage when new certificates need to be signed is what you pay the security premium for right? This is not about discount SSL certificates that need to be sent with an automated process, no need at all to hook the machines to the internet... under-secured or super-duper-unbreakable-secure(tm) does not matter, just don't.

I'm fairy sure the guys from Star Wreck could make an awesome funny Star Wars movie too (but currently they're busy with a new original movie Iron Sky, I can't wait to see the result!), but there are other great low budget fan movies out there, just search for Star Wars Revelations, it's pretty decent (including FX) and they had a shoestring budget too. Look and learn George...

I have exactly 20.57 bits too! I guess you're that special 1 in 1558541... ;)

Better yet, the first time some incredible fuck-up happens that causes widespread damage and/or death and its even remotely related to computers (like anything nowadays) it can be declared an act of war by any entity. If something like the three mile island incident would happen today they would probably blame Iran or 'the terrorists'.

Iran Operating System with Ahmadinejad Permitted Program store?

HVDC will improve the situation, but not to the point that no baseline power is needed at all... I agree gas is a good alternative (but like all tech it has disadvantages). But you avoid the hard choice because you know you don't like the outcome, but this an actual choice that is made by people everyday! The replacement of nuclear in practice is coal (should not, but realistically is)... so every time the 'greens' wins against nuclear nature loses because more coal is burned (in Germany's case probably lignite, which doesn't burn pretty). You can always claim that ideally this should not be the case but this is how it is *now*, and because of that nuclear is the best alternative *now*. It will change, that is the whole point or investing and researching new technology... No single one of all technologies should simply be discarded because of a disadvantage than can be overcome, with that attitude solar and wind power would never take off.

You are making a much better impression now that you've stopped preaching and make a good rebuttal. Funny how a guy called 'mindcontolled' can accuse others of being a puppet... The people who scream these things the loudest often are.

But I'll still give you a chance with this hypothetical question:

Consider a country investing heavily in solar and wind energy (always a good idea), but they need another energy source to insure power availability all day. They have no good geology for geothermal and hydro (the best renewable energy sources in my opinion) and have to import oil and natural gas at too high a price so they are left with two viable options for power generation: coal or nuclear. They ask you to decide this weighing all the benefits and risks to nature and health and leave you the room to choose the specific requirements of the power plant. Which would you choose? It may seem like choosing between two evils, but in real life things often are... This isn't about groups and politics but what you believe will be best, they are going to build a plant and you need to choose which one you believe will be best for the country and the world as a whole based on science (not just some people that can sleep better with either choice). I'm honestly interested in how you will answer this question and why. Coal or nuclear?

After this specific scenario I also wonder what your ideal power generating scenario would be.

:-) It's a shame that we have to resort to these kinds of ways of grouping people together... I consider myself not to belong to any particular group but I always find myself accused of being part of some group opposite of whoever disagrees with me. Somehow perceiving a person as being part of a group of 'enemies' serves the purpose of being able to conveniently group all opinion and arguments in the garbage bin of 'propaganda' of that group... It's very interesting to see group psychology like this because it comes so natural to us we can hardly see ourselves participate in it.

I made some proper arguments why nuclear is still one of *many* viable options for power generation. Those arguments, as well as my opinion that the green movement causes more harm than good (as most hysteric overreactions), have not been met by you with any rebuttal. I suppose you think it's all fine to withold your well formed logical arguments and put me in my rightful place since I'm just a minion praying to the nuclear altar, but just suppose you're wrong? That would just make you a guy without arguments acting somewhat like a dick...

Democracy has it's strengths, but the weakness is that a group of people will not always reach a rational decision... You are right that even if it may be tempting for the government they should not have pushed nuclear against the will of such a majority! That does not mean that no research should be done because times change and given better technology and access to scientific information people will change their opinions as well...