Recent Posts

4301

General Software Discussion / Re: switch black and white in tiff files

« Last post by IainB on January 24, 2013, 02:28 AM »

@eleman: If your .tif/.tiff image file contains an image of white text on a black background, and you want it reversed, then I would suggest that you might consider turning the image into a negative (e.g., using irfanview or similar), which can then be saved as an image of black text on a white background.
That's what I have usually done in the past anyway.

You can print/output such image files as PDF files, and OCR them in the process, so you will have them as text-searchable and text copyable PDF files, which might be handy for searching/reading on a PCscreen, and could be easily printed as black-on-white hardcopy.

...I need to print them...

-eleman (January 23, 2013, 02:22 AM)

However, I have to ask: Why do you need to print them in hardcopy?
It does seem a backwards step.

Some alternatives:

• 1. Windows 7 search/index: If the .tif/.tiff files were output from document scans, then whether the text is black on white or white on black should make little difference to an OCR scan. If you have any .tif/.tiff files on disk in Windows 7 (Home Premium), and if they are in a Library that the inbuilt index/search service has been assigned to watch, then the files will be automatically OCR scanned, and and any text in the images will be indexed and becomes text-searchable (but not text-copyable) - e.g., from the Start menu Search all programs and files.
  
  
• 2. Google Drive: If you put the .tif/.tiff files into Google Drive, then the files will be automatically OCR scanned, and any text content will be indexed and made text-searchable and text-copyable. I use that facility all the time in Gdrive, and it seems to work very well.
  
  
• 3. Qiqqa: If you output the image files as .PDF files, and if they were not OCR scanned, (or even if they were) then you could use the FREE version of the reference management system Qiqqa, which can automatically OCR scan PDF image files, and outputs indexed text-searchable and text-copyable PDF files. It is a superb information management tool.

Hope this helps or is useful.

4302

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: CHS Note field display disappears [Bug?]

« Last post by IainB on January 23, 2013, 09:40 AM »

Sure. Just point me at it please.

4303

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by IainB on January 23, 2013, 09:35 AM »

I always wondered how/where the phrase "Talk to the hand" originated. It seemed so silly.
Tonight I was watching "Demon With A Glass hand" from an old (1964/5) Outer Limits TV show.
(Click on image to enlarge.)

4304

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: CHS Note field display disappears [Bug?]

« Last post by IainB on January 23, 2013, 08:42 AM »

OK, here is a screenshot, taken by Screenshot Captor. The Note field is not displayed.



After taking the screenshot, and copying some text, I noticed that the Note field display had come back.



Then it disappeared again, and re-establishing the clipboard chain did nothing to bring it back:



Then, after I had scrolled down the Grid, there was the Note field back again:

4305

Living Room / Re: Computer science student expelled for testing university software security

« Last post by IainB on January 23, 2013, 01:35 AM »

Reading that article (Montreal college student union defends expelled computer science student) gives me a warm feeling.

-mouser (January 22, 2013, 05:12 PM)

Yes, me too.
If the facts as above are all true and can be substantiated, then it rather looks like a monumental clusterfark at Montreal's Dawson College. The Provost must take the blame.
They either dig the hole they've apparently already dug for themselves deeper still, or give in and say sorry.
The Streisand Effect will make sure this one doesn't get forgotten in a hurry.
There'll be a subsequent change at Board level too, I suspect.
Let's see who they might try to throw under a bus as a sacrificial lamb.

4306

Living Room / Re: Computer science student expelled for testing university software security

« Last post by IainB on January 21, 2013, 06:45 PM »

...Just remember folks, there are TWO SIDES to every story.

-Josh (January 21, 2013, 06:01 PM)

...and to every equation...        

But seriously, I would suggest that the issue here is the communication and publication of college security standards.
It would need to have been communicated clearly to the students - i.e., documented in college rules/regulations, and they had had it spelled out to them - that it was a "capital offence" to ping or test/retest the university's network security, but had it been so communicated?

If it had, then fine, and Ahmed Al-Khabaz had been dealt with appropriately - but only if he had also been clearly warned after the first breach (I read one report that said he was apparently told that this was the second breach).

If it had not, or if he had not even been warned after the first breach, then Ahmed Al-Khabaz would seem to have been done a great wrong, and possibly even entrapped.

In any event, I am skeptical whether they really would put it to a vote as has been reported. Would that have been the policy and corresponding due process? If so, then it sounds like it's a potentially wide-open to question and dubious process to me. I mean, no-one takes a decision, just blame it on a committee? No, the Provost should/would have been all over this one like a bad rash, making decisions.

No typical college or university can be a high-security IT establishment (e.g., like a military or Defence establishment), by definition. They need to retain Open and accessible systems for the students to use. Students will not necessarily be familiar with all the prevailing rules/regulations, and would be given the benefit of the doubt - especially in such a a case as this, where the student accidentally discovers and reports a flaw.

If he was an employee of a military or Defence establishment, then, in my experience he'd have been summarily dismissed and immediately physically escorted out the door, but that is not applicable in this case.

4307

Living Room / Re: Computer science student expelled for testing university software security

« Last post by IainB on January 21, 2013, 05:30 PM »

Erm, it was a joke, d'you see? Follow the link. "It all adds up".
And so it is nonsense!   

4308

Living Room / Re: Cookies, EU Regulations, and Making a Mockery of it All :D

« Last post by IainB on January 21, 2013, 05:25 PM »

@Renegade: I've seen this idea before. I think maybe it was a tip in another post of yours somewhere.(?)
Thanks anyway. It's a potentially useful tip for an annoying security problem.
Now all we need to do is automate it...   

4309

Living Room / Re: Computer science student expelled for testing university software security

« Last post by IainB on January 21, 2013, 05:02 PM »

I have it from a reliable source, apparently via someone at Montreal's Dawson College, that there could be a great deal more to this story than meets the eye. Whereas it was commendable that Ahmed Al-Khabaz reported the security weaknesses, he thus exposed himself to some security scrutiny, and apparently it was found that he has close associations with the notorious Al-Gebra movement reported on here: New Terrorist Group at Large in USA.
Maybe his expulsion for subsequently "retesting" the security was based on matters of which we are not privy to. It could all add up.

4310

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by IainB on January 21, 2013, 01:53 AM »

Mate round for dinner.
A man gets home from work late and tells his wife he's invited his mate back home for dinner.
The wife screams at him "You've done what!? I've not done my hair, not done my makeup, not done any housework, not done the dishes and can't be bothered with cooking! What the f**k did you invite him round for?"

Husband: "Cos he's thinking of getting married."

4311

Living Room / Re: Internet freedoms restrained - SOPA/PIPA/OPEN/ACTA/CETA/PrECISE-related updates

« Last post by IainB on January 21, 2013, 01:12 AM »

Good post at TechDirt: One Year Later, SOPA/PIPA Supporters Still Completely Ignore The Public

The conclusion?

All in all, these comments show a consistent pattern. SOPA and PIPA might not come back as new legislation... but the issues are still very much with us. Those in power still don't understand the core issues, believing it's a commercial dispute between two mis-defined industries, while the focus on "voluntary" solutions seems to be attacking individual rights without people noticing.

4312

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by IainB on January 21, 2013, 12:36 AM »

@Renegade: Glad you liked them. Collecting jokes has been a hobby of mine since age 10.
I have over 2,000 jokes in my InfoSelect database collection, which includes only some of the hundreds stored in my head. The database gets added to periodically as I sweep up the jokes people send me, or if I come across a new one whilst browsing the Internet. If I find what looks like a new one, I first check to see if I already have it in the database - most times I already have it.
I don't blindly save in my database every joke I come across, but only the ones that make me smile or laugh, and that aren't too cruel to the butt of the joke, and that aren't too extreme (e.g. racism, sexism).

4313

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by IainB on January 20, 2013, 07:32 PM »

In the book The Penguin Dictionary of Curious and Interesting Numbers, by David Wells, pub. 1986, there are notes about many different numbers, starting with -1 and i (negative and complex numbers) and working up, but there is an especially interesting note about the number 39:

This appears to be the first uninteresting number, which of course makes it an especially interesting number, because it is the smallest number to have the property of being uninteresting.
It is therefore also the first number to be simultaneously interesting and uninteresting.

4314

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by IainB on January 20, 2013, 07:22 PM »

@Stephen66515: That was the idea!    ;-)

People would read it, initially thinking it to be serious...
It's a a sorta joke in camouflage.
I shall stop doing it now, if it confuzzles.    

4315

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by IainB on January 20, 2013, 07:15 PM »

Statistics on 4WD accidents.
Over the last five years the N.T.S.B.  has been covertly funding a project with U.S.  auto-makers whereby the auto-makers have been installing "black boxes" in all four wheel drive pick up trucks they have manufactured.  This was to determine, in fatal accidents, the circumstances in the last 15 seconds before the crash.

They were surprised that in 42 of the 50 states, the last words of the drivers in 61.2% of the fatal crashes were, "Oh sh#t!"

Only the states of Arkansas, West Virginia, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Texas, and Tennessee were different, where over 89.3% of the final words were, "Hold my beer and watch this."

4316

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by IainB on January 20, 2013, 07:14 PM »

New terrorist group at Large in USA.
At the New York airport, an individual, later discovered to be a school teacher, was arrested trying to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a set-square and a calculator.  The police believe the man is a member of the notorious Al-gebra movement.  He is being charged with carrying weapons of math instruction.

Al-gebra is a very fearsome cult, indeed.  They desire average solutions by means and extremes, and sometimes go off at a tangent in search of absolute value.  They consist of quite shadowy figures, with names like "x" and "y", and, although they are frequently referred to as "unknowns", we know they really belong to a common denominator and are part of the axis of medieval with co-ordinates in every country.

The great Greek philanderer Isosceles used to say, "There are 3 sides to every triangle.". However, if Providence intended us to have better weapons of math instruction, we would have been given more fingers and toes. Therefore, it is fortunate that the US government has given us a sine that it is intent on protracting us from these math-dogs who are so willing to disintegrate us with calculus disregard - these statistic bastards love to inflict plane on sphere of influence.

Under the circumferences, it is time we differentiated their root, made our point, and drew the line.  These weapons of math instruction have the potential to decimalize everything in their math on a scalene never before seen unless we become exponents of a Higher power and begin to factor-in random facts or vertex.

As the President might say "Read my ellipse. Though they would continue to multiply, their days are numbered and the hypotenuse will tighten around their necks."

4317

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by IainB on January 20, 2013, 07:08 PM »

Efficiency improvement.
This story gives an example of the difference that consultants can make to an organization.

Last week, we took some friends out to a new restaurant .  After a while, we noticed that the waiter who took our order carried a spoon in his shirt pocket.  It seemed a little strange, but I ignored it.  However, when the busboy brought out water and utensils, I noticed he also had a spoon in his shirt pocket.  Then I looked around the room and saw that all the male staff had spoons in their pockets.

When the waiter came back to serve our soup I asked him, "Why the spoon?"

"Well," he explained, "the restaurant's owners hired Andersen Consulting as efficiency experts, to revamp all our processes.  After several months of statistical analysis, they concluded that the spoon was the most frequently dropped utensil.  This represented a drop frequency of approximately 3 spoons per table per hour.  If our waiters were prepared to deal with that contingency, we could reduce the number of trips back to the kitchen and save 15 man-hours per shift and give a faster response time to customers."

As luck would have it, I accidentally knocked my spoon off the table, and he was able to replace it immediately with his spare spoon.

"I'll get another spoon next time I go to the kitchen instead of making an extra trip to get it right now." he said.

I was rather impressed.

Later I noticed that there was a very thin string hanging out of the waiter's fly.  Looking around, I noticed that all the male waiters had the same string hanging from their flies.

My curiosity got the better of me, and next time he came to our table I asked the waiter, "Excuse me, but can you tell me why you have that string right there?"

"Oh, certainly!" he answered, lowering his voice.  "Not everyone is as observant as you.  That consulting firm I mentioned also found out that we men can save time in the restroom."

"How so?"

"See," he continued, "by tying this string to the tip of you know what, we can pull it out over the urinal without touching it and that way eliminate the need to wash the hands, shortening the time spent in the restroom by 76.39 percent."

"But, after you get it out, how do you put it back?", I enquired.

"Well," he whispered, lowering his voice even further, "I don't know about the others, but I use the spoon."

4318

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by IainB on January 20, 2013, 07:05 PM »

A really smart man.
I was driving to work yesterday when I observed a female driver cut right in front of a pickup truck causing him to have to drive on to the shoulder to avoid hitting her.  This evidently angered the driver enough that he hung his arm out his window and gave the woman 'the bird'.
"Man, that guy is stupid." I thought to myself.

I *always* smile nicely and wave in a sheepish manner whenever a female does anything to me in traffic, and here's why:
I drive 48 miles each way every day to work, that's 96 miles each day.  Of these, 16 miles each way is bumper-to-bumper.  Most of the bumper-to-bumper is on an 8 lane highway, so if you just look at the 7 lanes I am not in, that means I pass something like a new car every 40 feet per lane.  That's 7 cars every 40 feet for 32 miles.  That works out to be 982 cars every mile, or 31,424 cars.  Even though the rest of the 32 miles is not bumper-to-bumper, I figure I pass at least another 4,000 cars.  That brings the number to something like 36,000 cars I pass every day.  Statistically, half of these are driven by females, that's 18,000.

In any given group of females 1 in 28 are having the worst day of their period.  That's 642.

According to Cosmopolitan, 70% describe their love life as dissatisfying or unrewarding.  That's 449.

According to the National Institute of Health, 22% of all females have seriously considered suicide or homicide.  That's 98.

And 34% describe men as their biggest problem.  That's 33.

According to the National Rifle Association, 5% of all females carry weapons, and this number is increasing.

That means that EVERY SINGLE DAY, I drive past at least one female that has a lousy love life, thinks men are her biggest problem, has seriously considered suicide or homicide, is having the worst day of her period, and is armed.

Piss one off?  I think not.

4319

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by IainB on January 20, 2013, 07:01 PM »

I always enjoy jokes about the use/misuse of statistics and numbers.
@app103's "Internet Explorer v Murder Rate" is just another amusing example of the classic stochastic fallacy that "Correlation equates to causation" (it does not), used by so many, both wittingly and unwittingly. You can probably do the same sort of thing with (say) the import of bananas and the murder rate, or even (say) HJ Eysenck's contentious analysis of correlation between IQ and race in the US population.

The:

• "87% of all statistics are made up" or "42.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot",
• "72% of people agree that 87% of all statistics are made up",
• "97% of scientists agree that 99.9% of the statistics made-up by scientists are credible".
• "I'm 99.9% certain, but that 0.1% can get you every time."

- belong to a group of old jokes poking fun at the deliberate/irrational misuse of statistics to "prove" an invalid argument/theory, over the years.

Other jokes/silliness:

• My personal favourite is the report that: "According to the UK Department of Incomplete Research, 9 out of 10."
• In New Zealand, it is legal to label a food product with the declaration that it is "97% fat-free". (Not a joke.)
• "The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four Americans is suffering from some form of mental illness. Think of your three best friends.  If they're okay, then it's you." - Rita Mae Brown.
• Remember:  Marriage is the number one cause of divorce.  Statistically, 100% of all divorces started with marriage.

4320

Living Room / Re: FBI ALERT SCAM - Malware or Virus ?

« Last post by IainB on January 20, 2013, 05:24 PM »

...My recommendation is that if you do not need Java installed for one of your desktop applications, uninstall it. And if you do need it, make sure you disable Java from running in any of your browsers. Any website that needs Java to work properly, you probably can live without. And I know you can live without the malware that will seek to exploit Java to get on your system. Malware is a heavy price to pay for viewing an occasional website that might depend on Java to work.

-app103 (January 20, 2013, 04:19 PM)

Yes, I reckon that's good advice.
This is the Firefox warning (Java disabled):



- and also at the Mozilla blocked add-ons page: Java Plugin 7 update 11 and lower (click-to-play), Windows has been blocked for your protection.

4321

Living Room / Re: Internet freedoms restrained - SOPA/PIPA/OPEN/ACTA/CETA/PrECISE-related updates

« Last post by IainB on January 20, 2013, 08:19 AM »

Thought-provoking post from TorrentFreak:

Record Labels “Correct” Dotcom: Only Way to Stop Piracy is Suing File-Sharers
enigmax, January 18, 2013
Last week Kim Dotcom posted a few lines on Twitter detailing his guidelines on how the piracy conundrum might be solved. The Megaupload founder said that offering a great product at a fair price, with the same release date worldwide should do the trick, as long as it’s playable on any device. In response today, the Kiwi version of the RIAA said that they’ve done all that and sadly, since people continue to pirate, the only solution is to sue them.

It was a single (re)Tweet on January 7 echoing the words of dozens of other digital observers this century. The advice from Dotcom was viewed by many as the key to solving a decade-long entertainment industry battle that began with an effort to force pirates offline and back into bricks-and-mortar stores.

But of course, that was their first big error.

When the downloading ‘problem’ first appeared people didn’t want to go back into the stores, they wanted access to media online in the most convenient form possible. Sick of being ripped off by two-track wonder albums padded out with junk at an inflated price, they wanted tomorrow’s world today. If the corporates weren’t going to provide it, they would make their own reality instead.

As soon as it became clear that people weren’t going to shelve their new-found freedoms, the record labels’ initial response wasn’t a creative one. Instead of coming up with a decent offering to tempt consumers back they chose to sue thousands of Americans instead. That campaign is still reviled today and did little to end the problem or win the hearts of consumers.

Of course, what they should’ve done – a full 10 years ago – is outlined in Dotcom’s Tweet.



Although it’s safe to assume that Dotcom’s comments were largely directed at Hollywood (who still have difficulty with DRM free, day and date releases, and making their product easy to buy), today a rather unexpected party has jumped in on the debate.

RIANZ, the New Zealand version of the RIAA representing the big recording labels, says “the music industry has delivered on all five points suggested by Dotcom.”

On “Create great stuff” RIANZ points out that while “great is obviously subjective” there are tens of millions of tracks now available for legal download. Twenty digital services available in New Zealand makes their product “easy to buy”, which includes the majority of music releases which are “available simultaneously worldwide.”

On the issue of price RIANZ says that “music has never been cheaper to buy or access” which may indeed be true. However, it is often argued that the price of music before the download revolution is hardly a realistic reference point – inflated prices due to restrictive market practices were another thing file-sharing turned upside down.

The final point – “works on any device” – is a reference to DRM and to their credit the recording industry did eventually respond to this big issue. A large proportion of downloaded music these days does tend to be playable on any device.

Nevertheless, while the music industry has finally come round to the needs of consumers with legal digital take-up coming on in leaps and bounds, the piracy bogeyman still exists.

“Despite [addressing all of the points outlined by Dotcom] music piracy continues unabated in New Zealand at one of the highest per capita rates in the western world. It has also grown every year since 2006 which is when iTunes opened for business in New Zealand,” RIANZ told NZHerald.

“Unfortunately it seems the only way to beat piracy is to take legal action against those who deliberately choose to deny songwriters and recording artists their basic human right to make a living from their creativity,” they conclude.

Here we go again……….

4322

Living Room / Re: Reader's Corner - The Library of Utopia (Mathematics update)

« Last post by IainB on January 20, 2013, 07:41 AM »

More potentially good news for the LOU, via Slashdot:

Mathematicians Aim To Take Publishers Out of Publishing
Posted by Soulskill on Friday January 18, @08:46AM
from the you've-been-subtracted dept.

ananyo writes "Mathematicians plan to launch a series of free open-access journals that will host their peer-reviewed articles on the preprint server arXiv. The project was publicly revealed in a blog post by Tim Gowers, a Fields Medal winner and mathematician at the University of Cambridge, UK. The initiative, called the Episciences Project, hopes to show that researchers can organize the peer review and publication of their work at minimal cost, without involving commercial publishers. 'It’s a global vision of how the research community should work: we want to offer an alternative to traditional mathematics journals,' says Jean-Pierre Demailly, a mathematician at the University of Grenoble, France, who is a leader in the effort. Backed by funding from the French government, the initiative may launch as early as April, he says."

4323

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by IainB on January 20, 2013, 06:02 AM »

Student Who Won’t Stop Nodding His Head Isn’t Following a Word
In news that some classmates say comes as no surprise, that guy sitting in the front row of Philosophy 302 who nods knowingly after almost every sentence spoken by the professor has absolutely no clue what’s going on in the class.

“At first I thought he was a genius,” said classmate Elena Rotova, “but gradually it became clear that he would just nod at everything.”

In an interview with The Faster Times, that guy, who has also been known to chuckle audibly whenever the professor makes a vaguely humorous remark and also to take notes constantly, acknowledged that he didn’t have the slightest fucking clue as to what the professor was talking about. “Most of the time, I’m just stoned off my ass,” said that guy.

4324

Living Room / Re: Internet freedoms restrained - SOPA/PIPA/OPEN/ACTA/CETA/PrECISE-related updates

« Last post by IainB on January 19, 2013, 08:07 PM »

Fight for the Future seem to have drawn a very clear parellell between, and moving from, the specific of Internet Freedom, to the general Freedom, per this classic bit of news posted at Mashable.com:

'I Have a Dream' Posted in Defiance of Copyright for Internet Freedom Day
Alex Fitzpatrick
2013-01-18 16:06:00 UTC

As Friday is one year since the Internet blackout against the Stop Online Piracy Act, some Internet activists are marking the date by declaring "Internet Freedom Day."

How does one celebrate Internet Freedom Day? Fight for the Future, an advocacy group that played a key role in SOPA's defeat, is commemorating the date by uploading and sharing footage of Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

Why is that a radical move? Footage of the speech is copyrighted by EMI, which has issued takedown notices several times after the speech has been uploaded to services such as YouTube.

Update: The video has been taken down from Vimeo. Fight for the Future is trying to learn more and is working to upload it elsewhere.

Update II: The video is back, now on YouTube:
- MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech is copyrighted. Share it anyway.

Uploading the speech in acknowledged defiance of the copyright simultaneously celebrates Internet freedom and the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., who advocated for civil disobedience as a means to effect change. Martin Luther King, Jr. day is Monday, Jan. 21.
Continue reading...

I don't think I had heard this speech in its entirety before, and I was pleased to be able to download this video and view it with my daughter Lily (who, I am happy to report, is a fervent advocate for freedom and liberty).

What was notable for Lily and I was that this speech comes from Martin Luther King at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's plan for a united march in Washington on August 28 in 1963, per Wikipedia: Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is an African-American civil rights organization. SCLC was closely associated with its first president, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The SCLC had a large role in the American Civil Rights Movement.[1]

So here was a Christian representative of a very large group of people - what he describes as a subjugated negro minority - talking about his "dream" where he is advocating civil rights and freedoms for the individuals in that minority, and he points out that it applies to the white people ("brothers") too.

Amazingly, this was only 49 years ago.
And interestingly, what he had to stay applies to other civil rights/freedoms - e.g., in the context of Internet freedoms restrained, from the post:

• "One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws," he famously wrote in his Letter from Birmingham Jail. "Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws."
  

• "It's untenable to have a world where young people can't easily hear and watch Dr. King's message of racial justice because it is censored by broken copyright laws," said Tiffiniy Cheng, one of Fight for the Future's co-directors, in a statement. "We're asking everyone on the internet to honor Dr. King's legacy and take part in a small act of civil disobedience by sharing the full video of his speech today."
  

But what seems to be apparent from MLK's speech is that he is one of those pesky civil rights and freedom activists that I quite coincidentally mentioned in a separate post:

...I'm not sure, but I think this may be another example (my emphasis):

West Point Think Tank: "Far Right" Groups Threaten America
West Point Think Tank: "Far Right" Groups Threaten America
January 18, 2013

A West Point think tank has issued a paper warning America about “far right” groups such as the “anti-federalist” movement, which supports “civil activism, individual freedoms and self-government.”
The report issued this week by the Combating Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., is titled “Challengers from the Sidelines: Understanding America’s Violent Far-Right.”

The implication presumably being that the absolute last things the US needs might include "...civil activism, individual freedoms...". This is clearly true.

-IainB (January 19, 2013, 05:28 PM)

One wonders whether that was sufficient justification for someone to feel, 5 years after his speech, that MLK had to be assassinated (in 1968) - per Wikipedia:

The King family and others believe that the assassination was carried out by a conspiracy involving the US government, as alleged by Loyd Jowers in 1993, and that James Earl Ray was a scapegoat. This conclusion was affirmed by a jury in a 1999 civil trial.[3]

If it was, then presumably those of us who advocate the unfettering of restraints on, and an increase in Internet freedoms, might also fall into the same life-shortening, labelled bucket as MLK. Of course, killing lots of people is out, but if you can make life a living hell for them, then they just might oblige by killing themselves. But that surely couldn't happen, could it?

Oh, but wait...it just has: US justice system ‘overreach’ blamed in suicide of Internet-freedom activist

4325

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by IainB on January 19, 2013, 08:23 AM »

Once upon a time a powerful Emperor of the Rising Sun advertised for a new Chief Samurai.
After a year, only three people applied for the job:
a Japanese man,
a Chinese man, and
a Jewish Samurai.

"Demonstrate your skills!" commanded the Emperor.

The Japanese samurai stepped forward, opened a tiny box and released a fly.
He drew his samurai sword and *Swish!* the fly fell to the floor, neatly divided in two!
"What a feat!" said the Emperor, "Number Two Samurai, show me what you do."

The Chinese samurai smiled confidently, stepped forward and opened a tiny box, releasing a fly.
He drew his samurai sword and * Swish! * Swish! *
The fly fell to the floor neatly quartered.
"That is skill!" nodded the Emperor, "How are you going to top that, Number three Samurai?"

The Jewish samurai stepped forward, opened a tiny box releasing a fly.
He drew his samurai sword and *Swoooooosh!* flourished his sword so mightily that a gust of wind blew through the room.
But the fly was still buzzing around!
In disappointment, the Emperor said, "What kind of skill is that? The fly isn't even dead."

"Dead?" replied the Jewish Samurai, "Dead is easy. Circumcision...now THAT takes skill!"