Spies Like Us And Revenge Of The Nerds

The Skinny is Keach Hagey's take on the top news of the day and the best of the Internet.

The New York Times reported that national intelligence director Mike McConnell told senators that the three Islamic militants arrested last week and charged with planning bomb attacks in Germany were nabbed with help that U.S. intelligence had gathered through a controversial new eavesdropping law. But another government official challenged that assertion, suggesting that McConnell "might have misspoken."

"This proves the old saying if you put enough monkeys in a room with enough wire taps for a infinite amount of time one will eventually come up with something to make the experiment look useful," wrote crzmeat.

But others weren't convinced. "Oh, I'm sure the new spying laws will catch some guys. If not in this case, then eventually," wrote Rafterman1. "The question is, is it worth the soul of our country? Maybe warrantless wiretapping is constitutional, maybe it isn't, by the letter of the law. But I believe it is against the spirit of the constitution."

Regarding the question posed in the column's title, "Did New Spy Law Help Foil Terror Plot?" FeelFree1 responded: "Very doubtful, but irrelevant. The important thing is that those who authorized and those who implement this law should be prosecuted for such a gross violation of our Constitution. Without our Constitution, we stand for nothing, and we surrender anything worth fighting for."

Revenge Of The Nerds

CBS News readers responded with mixed emotions to Wednesday's column, which led with news that private computer geeks, not government, were responsible for finding most of the Al Qaeda videos that end up on the cable news programs.

Commenter glossypan cheered the accomplishment of the 50-year-old graphic designer working from her South Carolina home who goes by the pseudonym Laura Mansfield. The Washington Post reported that she scooped al Qaeda this past week by digging up its own video before it was ready for official release.

"Way to go, Laura Mansfield," glossypan wrote. "Nerds and geeks, regardless of political philosophy: a standing ovation and resounding applause. Access to information is the cornerstone of a free society."

But the practice worried. CBS_Oliver, who wrote, "I am pleased when US government agencies achieve breakthroughs but am concerned if the government uses private companies as surrogates to operate outside the limits of the law and then turns a blind eye to their illegal activities. While the stories that are released may seem innocent enough the stories that are not released may be about atrocities."

If You Think Global Warming's Scary, Wait A Few Billion Years

The news that the earth may actually survive the sun's death, summed up on Thursday, didn't impress the editors of the New York Times who tucked it at the back of their paper, but it did get CBSNews.com readers talking.

Until now, scientists figured we were all going to be goners when, five billion years from now, our sun runs out of hydrogen fuel and swells temporarily more than 100 times in diameter, swallowing Mercury and Venus, the Times reported. But astronomers published a story in Nature this week announcing that they have discovered a planet that seems to have survived the puffing up of its home star - so we have right to hope that our planet, of not our species, might survive the death of our own sun.

"Let's face it," wrote octavianfdlr. "We humans might manage to drive ourselves to extinction, BUT WE WILL NEVER DESTROY THE EARTH. Even if we wreck our environment so badly as to make the Earth resemble the Moon, the Earth will still exist (as does the Moon)."

In response to Friday's column about the newspaper ad wars being waged by presidential hopefuls in the pages of the New York Times, commenter airmanc5 noted how glad he was that he didn't own any Times stock, since the price of that commodity is " falling like a rock.," he said.

He did, however, like our website redesign, saying "good job on the new CBS.com."

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