Moths

You know, many people think that moths are attracted to lights at night. Heck! It is even in the popular literature: "Like a moth to the flame."

But that's wrong.

Moths use the moon (and probably bright stars too) to navigate at night. They do so by keeping the light at a particular angle to their flight. Using a very distant object like the moon for this means they fly over long distances in what is effectively a straight line (when you average out all the little twists and turns they use to throw off bats).

Now replace that distant light with a closer one and what happens? About half of the time, moths will want to keep the light at an obtuse angle with respect to their line of travel. These moths will spiral away from the light. The other half of the time moths will attempt to keep the light at an acute angle with respect to the intended direction. These moths will spiral in toward the light which, if it is a candle, will spell disaster... which is kinda ironic: disaster came from the Latin meaning ill star (dis + astro).

the invaders

If powerful aliens decided to invade Earth and murdered half a million children along the way, if they raped and murdered women and killed men almost indiscriminately, would you feel like acquiescing to their demands and submit to doing things their way? If they left the surface of the Earth littered with radioactive spent weapons that would cause sickness and death for centuries to come, would you believe them when they call themselves the good guys? If you found out that the corrupt leaders of the invasion lied to and misled the people of their own planet would you expect them not to lie to you? If they bled dry of riches every world that they touched, would you have any hope that rule under them would be better than what you had in the past?

NSA access is built into Windows

http://www.heise.de/tp/english/inhalt/te/5263/1.html

Interesting article. There is even a link to a site that tells how to change the NSA key to protect yourself from being spied upon. Unfortunately the website has been taken down. Gee, I wonder why?

Some people will be tempted to think that it is OK for shadowy spy agencies to look into all that we do. After all, if you are law abiding then you have nothing to fear right? Such people have very short memories. Remember the McCarthy witch hunts against communists? How many innocent people's lives were ruined because they were fingered as communists? Nobody needed to prove anything -- just suspicion was enough for you to be shut out of society and for you to lose everything. Law abiding people have a lot to fear from spooks.

At the moment we have 2 witch hunts in progress: the mad scramble to find terrorists, and the frantic fear of pedophiles. You only need to have the vaguest suggestion of your name to be linked with either to be ruined. Justice and the law don't even begin to come into the picture.

................
Additional:
Oh, I forgot to mention that about 60 million* Americans (about a fifth of the population) are now criminals because of insane copyright laws imposed by the big corporations, so if you think you are safe... think again.

* The number is almost certainly much higher than 60 million. Have you ever taped a TV program, or a song off the radio, or taped a mix of songs from your CDs for playing in the car, or given a tape of songs to a friend or relative? Have you photostatted an article from a magazine or a chapter out of a book?

oh, way to go

How to win friends and influence people:
Hack some people to death then kidnap some others and threaten to burn them alive.

This is sure to help people become sympathetic to your point of view. After a few such events you can guarantee that nobody will ever see you as a crazed fanatic. No sir. Everybody will see that you obviously care deeply about the sanctity of human life, and all the world will welcome you with open arms. You will be the recipient of endless trust from all other peoples.

now *that's* an easter picture :)

http://www.livejournal.com/community/creature/141068.html