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If you read his book "On Writing", you'll see how his being hit by a car was part of his inspiration for the book. By the way, "On Writing" is a really good book, the first 3/4 or so are about his persistence and backstory on his becoming a writer. The last 1/4 is effectively how he prepares to write, what he calls his toolbox. Fortunately, it's not quite as verbose as some of his work, it weighs in at ~150 pages. There's apparently a 10th anniversary edition of the book that doubles the pages.

Just the faqs.

I just read the book Multipliers. It is targeted towards managers, but I think it is useful information for just about anyone. This dev (who has so far shown no interest in joining management) certainly took it to heart. The book compares "diminishers" and "multipliers".

Diminishers, like your company rockstar. They need to know everything and have the last word. They can appear to be a team player when they're really just using people around them to prop themselves up. They strike fear into people who challenge them. They make large decisions by themselves, or take input from a small inner circle of people. They are at their A game, but diminish other people's output and potential. When people work with diminishers, they feel like they're giving 50%. It is a net loss.

Multipliers create an environment where people can give input with confidence, make mistakes, and learn from them. This doesn't mean they are soft. In return for this they expect greatness and weed out those who can't give it or who can't work with the team. They identify genius (described in the book as an innate, exceptional ability which someone may not even realize they have) and try to flourish it. A multiplier can still be at their A game, but puts emphasis toward helping others grow. When people work with multipliers, they feel like they're giving 150%.

It sounds a lot like some management BS and I'm sure I'm not selling it well, but it really is a great read. It has a lot of studies within tech companies, so it was generally very relateable. It helped me identify areas of improvement in myself, not just in my attitude but also to find opportunities to help others grow where I otherwise may have just taken control and pushed someone out.

You might find The No Asshole Rule an interesting source.

LTFY.
Also: MOD PARENT UP

If you really understood the world you would know that there has been no such thing in US politics as Democrat or Republican since the 60s. Shitbags that have been put on ballots are all from the same team, and it's not your team or America's team.

I'll suggest you start with this, but there are numerous other references. When done reading, pass the book to a friend for their enlightenment. The book is free for many e-readers so you have no excuse not to read it.

"Very misleading as it says "Get the entire season for $13.99"."

Does Amazon pay you well to lie?

"Fix poverty". Which immediately leads to the question, *how* do you fix poverty?

Good question and history (as it so often does) provides us with some instructive examples; the war on Hookworm which took place (as related in books such as The Germ of Laziness).

In the early 20th century, Hookworm eradication was seen as a key part of anti-poverty initiatives aimed at the South and the Appalachians, due to the anemia and energy-sapping effects of heavy infestation that left its victims too fatigued to do much work. Combined with the public-health initiatives were large-scale development projects such as those part of the Tennessee Valley Authority.

While poverty still remains with us today, the combined development and public-health push was largely successful in eliminating the the most desperately impoverished pockets of 3rd-world-tier poverty that existed at that time, and has left a legacy of infrastructure which we still benefit from today.

People used to live in houses made of wood lit entirely by candles. Sconces and gas lighting are kind of new. Oil lanterns were a big thing for a really long time, and if you knock one of those over you have a problem; candles at least go out or not, oil spills and causes a huge blaze.

In the book Born to Run McDougall illustrates the theory that no only are those Tarahumara not unique, but the unique trait that let the entire human race survive when coming down from the trees (and get enough protein to build our large brains) was the ability to run extremely long distances and utilize persistence hunting. Here's a nice little video on the tarahumara and touching on some themes in the book...

There is a reason for the disparity. During the Cold War, the US had achieved what the Soviet's promised. The book Mig Pilot: The Final Escape of Lt. Belenko tells the story of a famous incident during the Cold War in which a Soviet fighter pilot, a privileged person in Soviet society, defected with his MIG-25. It is fascinating to see the US at the time (mid 1970s) through the eyes of this Soviet pilot. Below is a link to an excerpt from the book.

VIKTOR BELENKO'S VISIT TO THE SHOPPING CENTER --

Everyone treats it as a separate product and it's not called Season 5 or 5B. Given that it's coming out in two months

Whether you buy in the physical format or digital, it's seperate on Amazon too.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Breaking-Bad-Final-Season-Copy/dp/B00E3R32YW/
http://www.amazon.com/Transformation-Walt-Heisenberg-HD/dp/B00DTOYQM2/

That's because it's a separate product. You can blame the Vince for skirting the issue to avoid admitting he ran out of steam and couldn't give you a complete season 5. I do believe the internet turns the average person into a mouth breathing douche so I'm not surprised this is becoming more common.

Perhaps someone at Apple made the mistake of thinking they were two separate seasons.

The studio sure seems to be encouraging that mistake. They are selling DVDs saying "The Fifth Season" on the packaging with no hint that it is half of a season

Perhaps someone at Apple made the mistake of thinking they were two separate seasons.

The studio sure seems to be encouraging that mistake. They are selling DVDs saying "The Fifth Season" on the packaging with no hint that it is half of a season

American here. The general mood among the masses is that whether we like it or not, like sex with Kobe Bryant, it's gonna happen.

A small vocal minority protest it a small vocal minority support it, and an overwhelming majority have to go to work to make money to pay their bills and feed their families. Most Americans don't have the luxury of taking time off to protest so the task gets relegated to those that exist on government aid, specifically the wealthy, the elderly and the disabled.

If you've ever read Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" (aka the fireman) there are striking parallels to modern american society, specifically the obsession with homicidal television characters that every single American seems eager and willing to invite into their homes for a few hours a day. Crime stories are an ancient past time but you can turn on a TV any time of day any day of the week and find one. You've probably seen or at least heard of CSI, Dexter, Breaking Bad, Miami Vice, Cold Case, Bones, or any number of the derivative shows. Every time you see those shows from now on think of Millie's "family", the homicidal clowns on the walls.

More on Fahrenheit 451 can be found here

If you've not read it then I highly recommend it. You can get Fahrenheit 451 in paperback for under $4 on.

Saying it's $100 with a two-year contract is misleading. What's the real US price? TFA indicates £599, which would be about $936.

Very close!

http://www.amazon.com/Nokia-Lumia-1020-Factory-Unlocked/dp/B00E5M3JVG

PS. slashdot UTF-8 support is awsome!

Here is a Nokia phone with the same camera. Only running Symbian Belle:

http://www.amazon.com/Nokia-808-PureView-Factory-Unlocked/dp/B003U8EN7A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1378647969&sr=8-1&keywords=n808

The key thing that was lost in the digital book revolution is the ability to lend.

Lend or Borrow Kindle Books
You can lend a Kindle book to another reader for up to 14 days. The borrower does not need to own a Kindle device and can read the book after downloading a free Kindle reading app.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200549320

If they were really high-end they would be Gold.

It's a little known fact, but diamond has the highest thermal conductivity of any substance you're ever likely to encounter, beating silver by a whopping 350%. The only reason it's never used for thermal applications is that forming it into arbitrary shapes is almost beyond mankind's capability, and even if we did manage to do it, the cost would be astronomical. However, if it could somehow be done, and done cheaply, it would be the ultimate heat sink material.

Thanks for that!

Just recently saw a thermal compound with diamonds http://www.amazon.com/Innovation-Cooling-Diamond-Thermal-Compound/dp/B0042IEVD8 I didn't give it a second thought as someones always pushing a newer better compound. Guess I'll pick some up and give it a try.

Gotta jump in here to say I standardized on this Zalmon radial design several years ago for all my boxes and haven't looked back. The thing for me is dust, which would easily clog all the other coolers reviewed in TFA. Like it or not my PC real estate is dusty! Over the years I've aquired two types of tools to deal with the (serious) problem (very well).

Zalmon coolers of this design
http://www.zalman.co.kr/global/product/Product_Read.php?Idx=416

cans of compressed air to blast the cooling fins and:

a Dyson hand-held vacuum!
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Dyson%20DC34%20Hand-held%20Vacuum

These Zalmon coolers make it realistic to remove the dust. With x-acto knives if necessary, without rebuilding the entire PC. I just open the case regularly to deal with the issue and life is good.

Okay... so it's not particularly good art, but it is art nonetheless. If they invent e-balls as well, I totally want to see one of these in action!

I would start with Ringworld and go where you will from there.

Tunisa folded to a popular uprising, not guns. (see http://www.amazon.com/Why-Civil-Resistance-Works-Nonviolent/dp/0231156839 )
Libya rebels recruited bigger guns from NATO
Yemen ... US is still in charge with drones, etc.
Egypt - The military (the people with guns) threw out the government (twice).
Guns are persuasive.
Bigger guns / more guns win.

Exactly how large do you think the US military is? Do you imagine there might be some conflict in their loyalties if a popular uprising were to occur, as has been demonstrated time and again elsewhere? Can you envision a scenario where the rest of the world would just wait and watch while not intervening one way or the other to further their own agendas? I'm not saying another American revolution is likely. It isn't. It's nearly unthinkable. But that's very different than possible.

Tunisa folded to a popular uprising, not guns. (see http://www.amazon.com/Why-Civil-Resistance-Works-Nonviolent/dp/0231156839 )
Libya rebels recruited bigger guns from NATO
Yemen ... US is still in charge with drones, etc.
Egypt - The military (the people with guns) threw out the government (twice).
Guns are persuasive.
Bigger guns / more guns win.

I'm holding out for the app to help me avoid huge ships.

That's too concise and too much to the point. I believe the reviews would be more personal, littered with titbits of no relevance to the product at hand. Let's see, maybe something like this:

My wife's third cousin twice removed made an interesting comment the other day about her neighbor. Apparently, he had been doing some handy-work on his house lately, but there seemed to be any issue with the payment of the electricity bill. So, his other neighbor had helped out with an extension cord from his house. Now, my wife's third cousin twice removed found all this somewhat suspicious, so she called in the NSA to do a complete check, including a full house search by the local swat team and cavity checks on all family members, even the dog. They didn't find anything, but if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear, so they are all good. Thanks CSI for your thorough work. I would definitely order again.

That's too concise and too much to the point. I believe the reviews would be more personal, littered with titbits of no relevance to the product at hand. Let's see, maybe something like this:

My wife's third cousin twice removed made an interesting comment the other day about her neighbor. Apparently, he had been doing some handy-work on his house lately, but there seemed to be any issue with the payment of the electricity bill. So, his other neighbor had helped out with an extension cord from his house. Now, my wife's third cousin twice removed found all this somewhat suspicious, so she called in the NSA to do a complete check, including a full house search by the local swat team and cavity checks on all family members, even the dog. They didn't find anything, but if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear, so they are all good. Thanks CSI for your thorough work. I would definitely order again.

Well. http://www.amazon.com/She-Needed-Killing-Series-ebook/dp/B00DZX38EO

Thanks for the giggle, just wondering what a Z10 will do under the same circumstances? Call 911 for you? If connected to a remote bluetooth heart monitor, inform relatives, update your facebook status, setup a reading of your will, and call an funeral parlor, do a sell off e-trade of all your holdings and add any profits to your portfolio account, the phone itself will automatically list itself on e-bay and wipe all personal data at the moment all transactions have been completed after your heart stops? Those with mods mod parent up please!

(1) I am in Court and want to know what new mail I've received without getting whacked by the bailiff for taking out my phone.

And he will not whack you for holding a camera-watch up in the air why exactly?

I am on my bike and my cell phone is in my bag

Well that's a waste

I am at dinner and want to look at the score on the game / text message I just received / e-mail, but do not want to be rude to the other folks at the table by taking out my phone.

It's not rude at all to be constantly glancing at your watch!

(4) I am walking around and my pocket buzzes, I glance at watch to see who's calling to decide if its worth answering.

That is the one real use I can see for a paired watch, but to me the annoyances of wearing a watch outweigh that very occasional benefit.

Thanks, but I think you are well behind the eight ball - so far behind you unfortunately cannot understand the truth when you hear it. In fact, the disinformation (see the excellent: http://www.amazon.com/Disinformation-Undermining-Attacking-Promoting-Terrorism/dp/1936488604) is designed to keep smart people like you from asking the right questions.

How about you check out Barry Rubin's analysis? or Stephen Coughlin? or Frank Gaffney? or Robert Spencer? My statements merely reflect the information these giants are saying. These are all people who worked as intelligence analysts for Pentagon (Coughlin and Rubin), or as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence (Gaffney), or gave hundreds of briefings to the FBI and CIA for training (Spencer). Of course you are intimitely familiar with these names and their work, yes? if not, then perhaps you know a lot less than you think you do (since there is so much to know on the subject).

Perhaps, you actually know virtually nothing about the global jihad and the international Leftist alliance that is helping them. As long as the disinformation keeps you from asking the right questions you will never get the right answers - and never recognize when a person is telling you the deep truth. Too bad - the world is an unpredictable place full for random violence until you find out what is going on (not aliens, no lizardmen, no illuminati - just good old fashioned International Socialist and Islamic ideologies working together to subvert the Free World).

Never ascribe to malice what can be ascribed to stupidity.

FYI the original quote uses the word, "incompetence". However, if you ascribe to incompetence what is actually malicious then you are going to be in a progressive world of hurt, aren't you? Look, you don't have to believe me, just follow some of the references I've given in my earlier posts. Without looking at those references you have no idea as to whether my statements are based on fact or not, yes? Use the scientific method, use my references and find the truth about geopolitics. Or not - if you would like to never see outside the disinformation that cages you. If you want to know the answers as to why Britain's immigration policy was the way it is, why Europeans will be a minority in their own countries within a few generations, why Obama and Bill Clinton used the US to fly as "Al Qaeda's Air Force" in Libya, Kosovo, Bosnia and soon in Syria, as well as Obama supporting the Muslim Brotherhood against the massively popular secular democratic movement in Egypt then I'll be happy to point you to best objective analyzes there are. Until then, please admit to yourself you actually know very little about the subject. Thanks for posting your ideas though.

Done. I've already set up my books to give the eBook away for free when you buy the paperback.

So that means y'all should rush out and grab my paperbacks to get the free eBook, right? ;)

(P.S.: Just in case you're ready to take me up on that, http://amazon.com/author/thomasaknight is where they're at.)

A laptop uses maybe 6 cells which retail on amazon for about $10. So a doubling of prices would at most cost a laptop owner another $10 which is almost in the noise.

Yes, you can get extremely dangerous, garbage 18650's for $2.72. Note that they actually only have one third of the advertised capacity, though. These things are probably rewrapped worn-out or reject cells.

An 18650 of any quality at all costs more like $10-$25 EACH. You start putting no-name crap 18650's in there and you are going to have enough laptop fires to cook every weenie in the world.

Lenovo already charges $149 for a complete 6 cell battery with case and electronics. Would you like to see that rise to $298? Be my guest if you want to replace yours with a dangerous piece of garbage. You certainly won't be bringing it into my house.

A laptop uses maybe 6 cells which retail on amazon for about $10. So a doubling of prices would at most cost a laptop owner another $10 which is almost in the noise.

Yes, you can get extremely dangerous, garbage 18650's for $2.72. Note that they actually only have one third of the advertised capacity, though. These things are probably rewrapped worn-out or reject cells.

An 18650 of any quality at all costs more like $10-$25 EACH. You start putting no-name crap 18650's in there and you are going to have enough laptop fires to cook every weenie in the world.

Lenovo already charges $149 for a complete 6 cell battery with case and electronics. Would you like to see that rise to $298? Be my guest if you want to replace yours with a dangerous piece of garbage. You certainly won't be bringing it into my house.

A laptop uses maybe 6 cells which retail on amazon for about $10. So a doubling of prices would at most cost a laptop owner another $10 which is almost in the noise.

Yes, you can get extremely dangerous, garbage 18650's for $2.72. Note that they actually only have one third of the advertised capacity, though. These things are probably rewrapped worn-out or reject cells.

An 18650 of any quality at all costs more like $10-$25 EACH. You start putting no-name crap 18650's in there and you are going to have enough laptop fires to cook every weenie in the world.

Lenovo already charges $149 for a complete 6 cell battery with case and electronics. Would you like to see that rise to $298? Be my guest if you want to replace yours with a dangerous piece of garbage. You certainly won't be bringing it into my house.

Soneone's been reading his Tom Clancy, hasn't he....

Man Minus :(

When I was struggling with calculus my first year, and a lot of concepts hadn't gelled, I had an idea. I decided to go to the library and see if there were any better calculus texts. I found Calculus Made Easy and believe it or not, it actually made good on its promise. I aced my first semester calculus exam, with much thanks to that book. The biggest take-away was that they actually showed the relationship between summations, limits, and integrals. All of that material had been covered by other texts, and by teachers of course; but they had never related it. The "genius" of the invention of calculus was in that relationship, not just a bunch of dry examples of limits, series, and integrals.

And yes, this was actually more than 20 years ago. The copy I read was dug from the depths of the multi-story engineering library stacks at UVa, and even then it was an old copy. Now you can probably download it...

The communist governments of the "Red/Commie Boogyman Bucket," as you refer to it, used to rule a major portion of earth, and managed to kill 100,000,000 people in the last century. Normally bogeymen are considered to be imaginary and don't manage to kill anyone. You may be confused.

The trailer for The Soviet Story may help you understand, as will this book, The Black Book of Communism reviewed here .

The communist governments of the "Red/Commie Boogyman Bucket," as you refer to it, used to rule a major portion of earth, and managed to kill 100,000,000 people in the last century. Normally bogeymen are considered to be imaginary and don't manage to kill anyone. You may be confused.

The trailer for The Soviet Story may help you understand, as will this book, The Black Book of Communism reviewed here .

If you are interested in Pat Cadigan's novella, the preview / kindle sample of "edge of Infinity" includes the complete story. It can be found here.

Chromebook.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=chromebook

Conventiently not mentioning his other, more fundamental, oath to protect the US constitution?

I don't believe that contractors swear an oath to protect the Constitution, and even if they did, who did Snowden vet his personal interpretation of the Constitution with? Nobody, I expect. Assuming his intentions were actually "good," he just decided he didn't like it and broke the law. As to the constitutionality of the programs, Professor Geoffrey Stone of the University of Chicago Law School has some views on that.

Also, "arguably affecting the privacy"... We can omit the "arguably" here, it seems to me; that has been Snowden's main point (which has not been creditably disputed, as far as I know).

That's something of a philosophical question. If they collect and large amounts of data, which the phone company already has, but only look when they have a warrant, is it an invasion of privacy? Is it collection and storage that is a violation, or is it where there is a person looking at the data? I would say the looking. I can certainly understand how the storing would be an uncomfortable point.

But as to Snowden, it is clear at this point that he went way beyond questions of privacy in what he grabbed. He disclosed information on anti-terrorism operations, such as against Bin Laden and others. That has nothing to do with the privacy of American citizens.

Cleverly mentioning "Snowden sympathizers" and "anti-American activists" in close conjunction. The implication being, without actually demonstrating, that they are one and the same. Echoes of Al-Qaeda and Iraq, a decade ago. Bolton's statement that these have "controlled the story line" is arguably true, but not for lack of trying.

No, it is pretty straight forward that Snowden sympathizers and anti-American activists are overlapping groups, but not the same despite your claim. I don't believe that the US government ever claimed that Iraq was involved in 9/11 as part of the plot. Iraq was a state sponsor of terrorism, that is beyond dispute. There were contacts between the members of the Iraqi government and al Qaida members. Al Qaida members were present in Iraq.

Hm, that contradicts the point you were making about how thousands of operatives were already in grave danger. Although I suppose you will say that you were talking about UK operatives. Ok, I'll give you that, sort of.

Actually I'm completely correct. Bolton was referring to US agents, I referred to British agents. I don't believe the actual number of agents was revealed.

Do you really not see the hypocrisy here? For years the West has accused China and Russia of doing exactly what they were themselves doing all along. So the "damage" here is that the falsely claimed moral highground is now exposed as dishonest fiction.

Was the West, the US, doing it all along? I don't think that has been established. I think it is also highly doubtful that the US or any country in the West has strong human intelligence in either China or Russia, certainly not to the degree they have on the US or Europe. The history seems to indicate that Eastern Block nations and China were pursuing computer espionage much more seriously long before the US or Europe. If you haven't, you should read The Cuckoo's Egg about an early documented case in the 80s. The author had a difficult time getting the gov

The language used in patent applications is extremely hard to decode. The idea that people might be mining for innovation by reading patents has to clear that hurdle. They need to make sense of that mess with less work than developing the same idea from scratch.

Back when patents were disclosing major technical advances, there was some evidence people were doing that. I re-read Portraits in Silicon lately. One of the recurring themes among early computer researchers was the idea that they'd get a patent on some very fundamental and non-obvious technology. Could you reinvent the transistor faster than you could read about it its construction? Probably not.

But lately, there's a lot more evidence that people are concurrently discovering obvious advances that someone patented instead of that sort of thing. And even those old fundamental patents turn out to be not such a big deal after all. The actual history of the transistor shows the concurrent development of its ideas as being really inevitable.

Concurrent discovery is far more likely than unique innovation. The patent system is burdening what turns out to be one of the most common situations seen in scientific advancement: that the next step to build on any innovation will be co-discovered by multiple researchers in parallel. This happens far more often than the fantasy of the lone inventor working in isolation to create something no one else thought of before.

Quite a bit. Still, I disagree that iOS development is easier. I honestly don't see why you believe it to be significantly easier than writing desktop applications on Windows or Mac?'

I've done some Windows programming in the past. I've also done some Mac programming. Just to get working things on iOS is so, so easy... I wish you could understand what a vast chasm it is between a real newcomer and making any kind of useful desktop application. There's so much more you have to know to get it working...

Cost: iPad is more expensive than most options.

A BRAND NEW iPad Mini is just $329. What kind of computer are you going to get at that price, honestly? The iPad will last for three years or more too, can you say that about a $329 computer?

Having fewer options means fewer tutorials and other learning resources.

At this point I would hazard to guess that iOS development has, by far, the most resources geared to getting the novice up and going, above all other languages and platforms. Seriously, open your eyes on this!

The iPad lacks a physical keyboard.

Which can be had in many forms for less than $30.

Sure, you can buy an expensive BT keyboard

Or a cheap iPad keyboard case for $20... you seriously still do not understand the HUGE advantage the iPad also has in physical accessories?

You are really, really doing beginners a disservice steering them into the rocky shoals of desktop development at this point in time, when there is a practical path before them.

Like these? http://www.amazon.com/216-Neodymium-5mm-Sphere-Magnets/dp/B00EI846PK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1378002899&sr=8-1&keywords=sphere+magnets

My high school friend Ricky Ames never thought much of polygraph tests. In 1986 and '91, he passed two of them while spying for the Russians.

I once learned to self-regulate my brain waves (EEG), or at least to produce alpha waves at will. The autonomic nervous system responses measured in polygraph tests (chiefly GSR, pulse rate and breathing rhythm) would be easier to self-regulate than brainwaves. Try it at home.

Instead of 10 years of yoga (see, for example, Delmonte, M. M. (1984). Electrocortical activity and related phenomena associated with meditation practice: A literature review. International Journal of Neuroscience, 24, pp. 217-231), instead search on "GSR biofeedback and relaxation" and check out the GSR2 Biofeedback Relaxation System for $70 on Amazon.

Think of something you forgot to do, get a genuine pang of guilt, and watch the response. Now you know where you don't want your mind to go. If you can't convince yourself in your heart that you are a good little girl/boy (good that you forgot), and you can't zen out on pleasant scenes, then do mental arithmetic.

A lot of people in physiology have measured all these responses. I have no experience with polygraph testing per se. As the CIA found out with Ricky Ames, the tests are hard to do well. Still, I bet that if I had all the time in the world -- and some experience as an actor and toastmaster -- I could surprise and trick out most test evaders. But, in routine use with routine false positives, where's any justice for the victims of fallible technology and foolish policy?

Most, yes. 80% of millionaires are first generation rich. Most own small businesses or are self employed. Few are the robber barrens of the past (and present) that use the government to make rules that stifle their competition or protect themselves from prosecution by being buddies with politicians.

http://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Thomas-Stanley/dp/0671015206

I think this book will surprise you, if you can read and process it without getting mad and shouting profanities.

It matters little who started what. Dresden remains an example of moral and practical failure. The moral failure came in the form of the massive civilian casualties knowingly inflicted. (That military men are guilty of atrocities does not mean unarmed non-combatants deserve punishment for those atrocities.)

The practical failure is often ignored, however, and the British should have been well aware of it. The Germans bombed London for months, operating under the belief that attacking the city would break the civilian will to fight. It turned out that attacking civilian populations only increases their will to fight, increases enlistment of willing soldiers beyond anything conscription can do, and makes any suggestion of acquiescence a political impossibility for those attacked. If you defeat an enemy military in the field, civilian support for the war effort will wane. Yet you cannot easily secure a surrender once you've committed atrocities against civilians.

This is directly comparable to the treatment of POWs. Some Germans were told by their fathers who'd fought in WWI to fight bravely even to the death against Russians but surrender to the first Americans you find. They said this because American had a policy of treating POWs humanely in WWI. Thus, American units in the European front could sometimes welcome a reduction in the fighting strength of the Germans due to surrender--an option which is always preferable because those who surrender do not shoot back. Contrast this with Americans after the Bataan Death March or, better still, Soviet defectors early in the war. Many Ukranians welcomed the Nazis, thinking them liberators from the evils of Stalin. They soon learned that the racist bastards could be even worse than Stalin. Consequently, Soviet soldiers fought for the state more fervently and many would refuse to surrender, knowing that death in battle would be preferable to being a Slavic POW in Nazi hands.

Atrocity can seem to give the one who commits it a brief surge of power, partly because of the fear it inflicts. But in the long run, atrocity and the killing of civilians is always counter-productive to a war effort. For more information, see Section V of this monograph.

Actually an excessive use of robot technology could be dangerous. This can move people to become lazy or to don't cooperate anymore in the improvement of society. It is quite obvious that many entrepeneurs will move into automatic cars if that will help them to increase their incomes. I think this book explains pretty well the dangers of excessive automatization: http://www.amazon.com/Age-Spiritual-Machines-Computers-Intelligence/dp/0140282025

So let's wait for a UN mandate and then act on that. And let's wait until there is verification that this is actually happening. John Kerry said something to the effect of "You can't deny that these horrible atrocities of chemical warfare on their own people are happening -- we have all seen the evidence first hand, on social media".

Sorry, but youtube is not "witnessing evidence first hand". I saw a video of a man flying with man-made wings, lifting off the ground and high into the air. That didn't mean it wasn't fake (it was fake).

Let's also not buy into this "it's for humanitarian purposes!' bullshit, so readily. Why does our government care about humanitarian military efforts over 300 dead people when it is in a high-energy resource center, but not when it is hundreds of thousands of people in Rwanda, Darfur, and many other places?

This isn't even a disguised agenda. When Obama hagiographer, Gwen Ifill, interviewed him recently, he stated the following. Notice that he throws absolutely fucking everything but the kitchen sink out there to compel America to throw in on Syria . . . but he very clearly states one of the reasons is to maintain the clear flow of energy through the region. You know, save people from chemical warfare, abuse of women and children, freedom, safety, opposition of authoritarian regimes (hah!) and... energy.

Obama: And so we don’t have good options, great options, for the region. But what I am clear about is that if the United States stands by its core values and its core interests; if we’re very clear about making sure that we’re stopping terrorist attacks against the United States; if we are very clear about our, you know, commitment to the safety and security of Israel; if we are clear about the free flow of energy throughout the region that affects the entire global economy; but also if we’re clear about our values and that we believe in inclusive governments, that we believe in the protection of minority rights, that we believe in women’s rights, that we believe that over time it’s better for governments to be representative of the will of their people, as opposed to being, you know, dictated to by authoritarian governments; if we are consistent in those principles, then eventually, I think, we’ll be better off. But it doesn’t mean that we’re not going to have some very difficult problems in — in the meantime.