An "upside-down star"? Why is everyone all so north-is-up-centric? Look at it with south as up, and PRESTO! Right-side-up star.

Can we get confirmation of the accuracy of the translation?

The sheer extensiveness of their YouTube offerings make me think it's the real deal.

I wonder if they've accounted for this scenario...

A terrorist manages to compromise a flight attendant (or, worse, yet, perhaps the terrorist IS a flight attendant), or otherwise gain access and proper authentication to run the system.

Now they have carte blanche to shock everyone on the plane (save for the pilots and other flight crew) into submission.

The whole "9/11 would never happen again because if anyone tries to hijack a plane they'll be rushed by a horde of angry, defensive passengers" situation goes away, putting everyone in MORE danger than before!

The link to Change Congress is busted, leads straight back here.

Even more fun, is that they're asking you to report people who are taking pictures of CCTV cameras.

If only they had some sort of device, perhaps an automated one, that could observe people remotely... perhaps an entire network of visual recording devices that would work like television, that could be monitored by a government employee at a central location, all hooked up to a special circuit, a private one, "closed" if you will...

I like the part on one of the posters, "You can help make London a hostile place for terrorists."

Because if it's a hostile place for everyone, then it is, by definition, a hostile place for terrorists.

I've had a better one (if you include the standard fortune cookie suffix)... "You cannot please everybody. Please yourself first."

I giggle a bit when I imagine the ear-to-ear told-you-so grin on Dennis Kucinich's face in the off chance that there are aliens, and they decide to make some sort of irrefutable public appearance in the near future.

Synthesia would be cooler if they notated it on a musical staff... something that could transfer over better to playing sheet music.

@#16, etc.:

A friend of mine used to work Jungle Cruise and ditched it for other rides because it became so oppressive. They've had quite a few significant crackdowns in past years on what you can and can't say on the ride, making for progressively fewer approved spiels. Sure, people will still improvise. According to the friend, though, they actually have people hide in the bushes from time to time to listen in on the skippers... wander too far off script when someone's listening? Bad things happen, including possible firedness.

ApplyYourself manages entire college applications, not just the reference letters.

I recently submitted grad school apps to a half dozen schools, which used a total of five different application website systems.

ApplyYourself was the most authoritarian and convoluded by a significant margin.

#17 AaronT: Well, apparently he's not familiar with the fast-forward button if he's spending multiple hours on it. No way it takes that long, even just at the two-arrow fast forward, which should be plenty to spot it.

The author seems to find the horror of sitting through "several more hours" of football the worst part of all, putting himself through unnecessary extra pain to make a point. Sounds to me like someone should have called a Waaaahmbulance.

"I was forced not only to sit through several more hours of football just to make certain they didn't show the image again"

Someone get this person a TiVo!

(or, heck, a VCR...)

Do the new ones still make that deafening "PSHHHHHH" sound when the doors close?

Perhaps the "single deal" and "double deal" are sandwiches?

It's the "2 For" that has me most bewildered.

Wow... cameras, video, maps, planning routes... perhaps someone is getting "terrorist" and "tourist" mixed up.

Acipolone: IIRC, Naxos has had its entire catalog available DRM-free on eMusic for some time now.

Sounds like AT&T. Perhaps they share a staffing manual or some call centers.

Last year I was activating phone service at my place. It's in an apartment complex, so when I called to set service up, they said they could just flip a switch at the office, which they would do on the first of November (estimated date to best of my memory). "I don't need to be home for it?" "No." Come activation day, while at work, I get a call on my cell phone (which was in my desk drawer; I was in the restroom) from the installation guy, letting me know that my phone wouldn't be installed because I wasn't at home and he couldn't get in to install the phone jacks I supposedly ordered.

Next day, after two hours on hold (45 minutes of which was being transferred to someone who then said "oh, that's not what this number is for), I manage to convince them that I don't need any installs done inside my apartment. They finally come out (about a week and a half later) and do the install, and this time I know they're coming. The tech calls my cell phone this time, says "hey, your phone's installed," and I never actually meet the guy.

The fun part was, during another call a few days later to change the services I was getting, when I asked why I was being charged for service beginning on my first supposed install day, rather than the week and a half later when service was actually installed. The conversation ended like this: "So it's company policy for you to charge people for services they aren't receiving?" "Yes, sir, that's correct."

I did learn a lesson earlier this year with Time Warner about call centers. Two months of phone tag and about four incompetent operators resulted in me being overcharged AND having my cable shut off. I called and spoke with one clueless operator who thought sending me to a channel listings website would solve my problems. Got cut off, called again, talked to someone who solved my two-month problem (that previous operators said was unfixable on their end) in about 5 minutes, PLUS gave me extra account credit for my trouble.

Lesson learned: If the person you're talking to on the phone is difficult and/or incompetent, hang up and try again. The one who knows what s/he's doing is out there if you keep trying.

Hydrogen plants??

If it's "plants that run on hydrogen", where is the pure hydrogen produced? A neighboring city's coal plant?

Was hoping to see the figures etc. actually used in the machine, rather than just as scenery...