The most recent 20 comments posted to Electrolite by sinboy:

Adobe had a PDF push a while back, and some offices tend to use it more than they should. Converting text to PDF is a waste of time and bandwidth. In this case, however, it makes sense to scan the original poster.

The freeway signs make sense. They used to get tourists back before the Gulf War. But labeling something in English (not just Roman letters) in a scientific instalation? I'm just not buying it.

One assumes that any chain reactions would be fairly obvious from (IIRC) the heat. But then I'm still not a nuclear physicist, or even a reactor tech. I have no clue how much it would take for it to get that dangerous, or what conditions it would take.

This whole thing reads like a con game. I do belive that, given the chance, Saddam Hussein would create WMD. I know he had chemical weapons in the past. If they discovered something with writing in Russian and the international symbol for radiation on it, I'd be a lot more accepting of the possibility.

That said, the Bush administration has lied to me too many times for me to trust them anymore. They've created "free speech zones", the Patriot Act, Patriot II, they've started hastling air travelers on the basis of dissent, and they're getting worse every day.

Add that to the fact that there's still no link between september 11'th and Iraq, and the fact that the Neo-cons were pushing for an Iraq invasion before september 11'th.

It's sad, but if they do provide a "smoking gun", I can't say I feel I could trust that they didn't manufacture it in the first place. I hate the idea that I'm going to sound like some conspiracy theorist, but there it is.

I don't belive, as some actual conspiracy theorists do, that the september 11'th attacks were known of, or worse, staged, but I do think they were used to pin the blame on Iraq with no evidence.

It disgusts me that I can't trust evidence that might actualy prove that Bush was right because he's lied to the US public so often.

How big before it gets unsafe? What do you mean? It's not going to blow up on it's own. If you want to know how much blockage is needed to keep you safe from the radiation, that's another question. I can't say for sure. I know a few nuclear physicists, but they're not immediatley available. I'll check around.

There are no stories on google news except for these two

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/3120305.stm

http://www.sundayherald.com/35736

They don't prove anything, but it does seem possible that there was nuclear material somewhere in Iraq. Unsurprising, given that we knew that Saddam was building a reactor at some point.

It's beyond the bounds of credulity, however, that an Iraqi reactor would have cylinders labled in English, and with a skull and crossbones. No producer of uranium uses those symbols. The radiation hazard symbol is international.

Furthermore, material used for storage of radioactives is propotionaly huge to the amount of material it contains even for things that are not very "hot". I know. I've had some medical radioactive materials for cell research in my fridge.

Unless some Iraqi stole uranium oxide, repackaged it and tried to sell it, there's a scam going on there. Getting ahold of minorly radoiactive material, though, is pretty easy. Get enough old smoke detectors together and you have some. Radioactive iodine is also easy to come by.

My only question is, who's running the scam?

To the Sea, to the Sea! The white gulls are crying,
The wind is blowing, and the white foam is flying.
West, west away, the round sun is falling.
Grey ship, grey ship, do you hear them calling.
The voices of my people that have gone before me?
I will leave, I will leave the woods that bore me;
For our days are ending and our years failing.
I will pass the wide waters lonely sailing.
Long are the waves on the Last Shore falling,
Sweet are the voices in the Lost Isle calling,
In Eresseba, in Elvenhome that no man can discover,
Where the leaves fall not: land of my people for ever!'-- JRRT

Well, Rumsfeld tells us that the real reason was that our parking meter was running out in S.A. , and no one nearby would let us park our troops. So we invaded Iraq in order to find a new place to house the US occupying forces in Arabia.

I can't imagine why he didn't try selling that to the US public, can you?

Irrespective of the validity of the "old school" questions prompted in Matrix Reloaded because of age, I'm still unconvinced that they were asked in a serious and thought provoking manner.

My favourite questions were ones about AI.

Who were these independent programs like Smith or The Oracle? How do they think, in relation to the way we think? If they have wants, what are those like in relationship to ours? Can there be morality for a computer program that wasn't programed in? Is a programed morality any different from ours?

I think Reloaded managed to ask those questions with a certain amount of style. I think that, from that perspective, the fact that Weaving stole the movie isn't a bad thing. The programs were the main actors in the move. They held all the cards, but for Agent Smith, there was something new.

Plus, the action scenes were worth the $9.50 all on their own.

Rumsfeld sings a differnt tune.

Are you surprised?

Hey, I'm Jewish. I've lived overseas. How come no one ever let me in on this conspiracy.

Does Graydon think the Arab states don't trust the US not to use nuclear weapons in a conventional war or as a pre emptive strike? whatever could have given them that idea??

Next thing you know, they'll be saying we're going to take over the entire midlde east!

Perhaps Steve Brust should consider a job in Washington. He's a Trotskyite sympathizer.

A pony would get you a hell of a better monitor.

What size and type of screen are you looking for anyway?

This photo [link] has to be the most chilling I've seen. It's a picture of a Baathist party member giving guns to his daughters.

Look at the smiles on everyone's faces.

I've been meaning to polish this [link] up and send it out to some satire wire. Mr. Ford's article is perfect company for it.

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