Condemned Utah killer will face firing squad

"Weak."

"Ronnie Lee Gardner, 49, was given the choice of being killed by lethal injection or shot by a five-man team of executioners firing from a set of matched rifles — a rarely used method of execution that harkens back to Utah's territorial history." - AP article, via Yahoo!

When reached for comment, Scottish national hero William Wallace was unimpressed. "Pfft. Kids these days have it too easy. Back in my day, we had to be executed by getting pulled on by horses...both ways! I'd have jumped at the chance for a firing squad! It was bad enough when these whippersnappers started getting all worked up about electricity...and pants. Now all these punk kids can do is complain about their evaporating home equity, global warming, and being shot to death."

Progress

Gotta love it.

Now maybe they can get started on re-designing the shape of ice cream molecules to be more filling.

Is Facebook worth it?

Facebook is making some changes. See here: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/how_to_delete_facebook_applications_and_why_you_should.php

This isn't new, but the recent news revived my interest in the issue. I'm struggling with the decision over whether to delete my Facebook account. I realize Facebook can only exist if it can turn a profit, and this is the only viable mechanism yet discovered.

If I could avoid the problem by opting out, I'd definitely keep it. But it's truly terrifying that if ANY of my friends have a single app like Farmville or Mafia Wars, all my data is shared anyway. As long as that's the case, my privacy won't improve even if I avoid all apps. It's a perfect example of the prisoner's dilemma.

Although I hate the privacy implications and nefarious way this scheme works, it sadly might actually be worth it to me.

That being said, I'd greatly prefer the option to pay an annual fee to opt-out of all data collection. If your privacy isn't worth $30 per year, that's your decision. But it's very troubling that a high school classmate I havent seen in a decade can essentially trade all my personal information for a new barn in Farmville.

-- Post From My iPhone

The regulators failed spectacularly...

...yet again. Government regulation lulls people into a false sense of security, thinking that they don't have to look out for themselves. This actually makes problems worse, and fools people into thinking Bernie Madoff was a good investment opportunity, the economy was sound, adjustable rate mortgages are smart decisions, when common sense should have told them otherwise.

This isn't helping

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100412/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan

And they want us to give them Predator drones

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100413/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan

Can anyone justify this?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100412/ap_on_go_ot/us_tea_party_crashers