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Boeing X-32

S.F. to see $99 million budget deficit next year, as pension costs soar
The US Debt Just Exceeded $19 Trillion.
Household debt at highest level since 2010
Student debt load growing, so are delinquencies

The people that taught you we're wealthy are idiots. Stop listening to idiots.

If you wanted to help the company out or support it in a positive light, you would have kept your issues between you and the company.

A-yup. If you actually read his open letter, he comes on like a hard-on right away, telling Musk what he should do and how he should do it, and he ends by telling Musk that he should show some class. I'd tell him to go fuck himself and that I didn't need him as a customer, too.

âoeDear @ElonMusk,â Alsop wrote in Mondayâ(TM)s post. âoeThank you for reaching out to me. I heard from our phone conversation that you feel that my post, âDear @ElonMusk: You should be ashamed of yourself,â(TM) was a personal attack on you.

Lolwaffles. It sure looks like one to me. If he wanted to address Tesla Motors, perhaps he should have done so. One of the costs of celebrity is that people will pay attention to what you say. If Alsop wanted a Model X, he bloody sure well should have watched his words. Now he'll have to watch other people drive his car.

I don't disagree with you about the light pollution. My point was that if eminent domain is going to be used to take this land from the tribes in Hawaii, it could also be used to take away the land surrounding existing observatories or other suitable sites that is causing light pollution.

To be precise, the land has not been acquired by eminent domain - it is leased http://www.bizjournals.com/pac...

The point being that there truly are other suitable sites on the planet for a ground telescope to be built.

Chile has a site in the Atacama desert. It has much in common with Mauna Kea. High and dry. Also covers the southern hemisphere, so that's a plus.

Imminent domain is supposed to only be used when it is going to benefit the local community. While there is much benefit to the world wide scientific community, that does qualify for the State of Hawaii to seize land that was deeded to the local natives, any more than Oklahoma can seize land from the reservations because it was now found to be valuable because of oil.

Any time we start saying that rights don't apply to one group of people, we are effectively saying that we don't have them either.

Except of course, you are incorrect about eminent domain, This is a lease. A contract entered into by two parties, with no land grab whatsoever.

Finally, and most importantly, since most astronomy is no longer done in the visible light spectrum, what are the cons to not building another ground based visible light telescope? Or what advantage over the existing telescopes, earth bound or not will this provide? If the goal is to further science, would these limited resources be better used for a different project?

Much of present day work is performed in the infrared, and at frequencies that are absorbed by the atmosphere.

That's thing one. Another very important part of all this is accessability. While it isn't particularly easy to get to either Mauna Kea or the observatories in the Atacama plateau, it is a whole lot easier and more flexible than orbital telescopes. Breakdowns, updates and repairs are rather easier than sending up space shuttles and EVA's. Some astronomy can be done using large airplanes, but the apertures limit size and therefore sensitivity. Which is also a matter of concern in space based observatories. Size limits on earth based observatories are much less restricted.

So Mauna Kea is a exceedingly rare and valuable location, the land is leased from the people who claim ownership for religious reasons, and It's always fun to watch people fall into easily predictable camps - which is why I like to tease people with the "white oppressor" nonsense.

You ARE a troll supreme. I had one of those Mercedes and it was a dirty bastard. It would just about suffocate anyone behind me at a red light.

That's because you're an ignorant and/or careless piece of shit who doesn't do maintenance. If you keep the valves adjusted properly (yes, how baroque) and if your ALDA is in proper working order, then that won't happen. You may have needed to clean, adjust and/or replace your ALDA, or simply clean the pressure line from the intake manifold to the ALDA.

The exhaust from my modern gasoline car is barely detectable unless you run a hose from the exhaust pipe up your nose or something.

Just like the cars of the nineties, until the car enters closed loop mode it has to run rich so that it doesn't cause damage. Contrast diesel, which runs lean all the time, and if you inject less fuel you just get less power. Unburned hydrocarbons are the most harmful emission, and gasoline vehicles pass more of them out of the tailpipe than diesels do. But in fact, you are absolutely correct, you simply came to an ass-backwards conclusion based on this fact. The exhaust from your modern gasoline car is barely detectable, but it contains just as much soot as diesel exhaust and that soot is of the most hazardous, barely detectable type — what we call PM2.5, or particles below 2.5 microns in size. These particles are too small to be swept out of your lungs by cilia, so they are the most hazardous type of soot.

But, let me return to the unburned hydrocarbons; while you are wringing your hands over soot, the HCs are actually the most harmful emission. Gasoline vehicles run rich at startup, and they run rich at wide open throttle. Diesels run lean all the time. That's why they produce more NOx than gasoline engines, which is what DEF is for; urea injection solves that problem neatly, and it neither costs very much nor adds dramatic cost to the vehicle as a package, nor does it take up much space in the vehicle. And if you don't believe that gasoline is more volatile than diesel fuel, you can try this one simple trick that will either have you convinced, or dead trying; get two glass jars and half-fill each one with fuel, one diesel and one gasoline. Now, put your head twelve inches over the diesel jar and breathe normally for five minutes. Take notes. Now, repeat the experiment with the gasoline, and if you are still alive and conscious at the end of the five minutes, record your comparative experience and get back to me. Diesel fuel breaks down faster in the soil than gasoline, it's less harmful to get on your hands, it's less harmful to breathe the fumes, it costs less energy to produce, and it produces no more pollution than gasoline. Its crime is having visible soot and fumes which you can smell. We pretend gasoline is harmless because we can't see it, but it is by far the more harmful fuel overall.

Now, what's even more ridiculous than wringing your hands over soot is the fact that we can have 100% carbon-neutral and lower-polluting fuels from non-fossil feedstocks right now if we just put the boot into the oil companies. BP and DuPont's company ButaMax has been abusing the courts to prevent GE Energy Ventures' subsidiary GEVO from selling butanol, a 1:1 replacement for gasoline which can be made by bacteria from literally any organic matter, and which reduces emissions. Likewise, lipids from algae can be used to make green diesel, which is the euphemistic name for the result of fractional column distillation of lipids into diesel fuel. It suffers from none of the drawbacks of trans-esterified biodiesel, like high acidity and ge

Not long a pizza chain local to the Minneapolis area raised their starting wage to $11/hour and they've seen tangible rewards from doing this.

Learn to google. WVU emissions grant vw is all you would need. $50k if you're too dense to try.

Well, the boys club culture she had to endure sure justifies a reason to destroy it. (http://www.bizjournals.com/bizwomen/news/profiles-strategies/2015/02/a-client-meeting-at-a-strip-club-a-turning-point.html?page=all)

• "Wright State fires provost and two others, reveals details of criminal probe". "The school...said [it] will take any necessary steps to remove [Sundaram Narayanan] from his tenured faculty position."
• "Wright State's top legal officer retires after being on administrative leave." The school said late Wednesday it had accepted the resignation of Gwen Mattison, the school's general counsel, taking effect this week."

• "Wright State fires provost and two others, reveals details of criminal probe". "The school...said [it] will take any necessary steps to remove [Sundaram Narayanan] from his tenured faculty position."
• "Wright State's top legal officer retires after being on administrative leave." The school said late Wednesday it had accepted the resignation of Gwen Mattison, the school's general counsel, taking effect this week."

This is also done in San Francisco.

Although, the reason is actually that they don't need the parking, because the building is going to remain mostly unoccupied.

What a steaming load of bullshit:

"As of the fourth quarter of 2014, the vacancy rate in San Francisco stood at just 3.6%"

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erincarlyle/2015/04/16/san-francisco-tops-forbes-2015-list-of-worst-cities-for-renters/

Your article is talking about housing. I am talking about commercial office space. Vacancy rates for office space in both San Francisco and Silicon Valley in general are sitting around 13% as of April of this year:

http://www.bizjournals.com/san...

That's about 3.6X the vacancy rate for residential rentals.

This is up from 11.36% office vacancy rates in San Francisco for mid 2012: http://nainorcal.com/SF_Office...

You really *don not want* to invest in housing, since some idiot *WILL* rent that, and then you're stuck with controls on how quickly you are allowed to raise the rents on them. Commercial rents have no such controls, and therefore a lot less risk, if you need your tenants out so that you can intentionally lose money for tax purposes.

She's still there. The chairman, vice chair, and another board member resigned over this as well as an investigation into the board's spending of taxpayer money, including the trip to Italy where the butt dialing occurred.

Never said that we are not using coal. That was you putting words in my mouth.

but ignoring your attack, here is just some of what eia is ignoring.
and here is more that eia ignored.

It appears to have been a mistake, but the complaint has now been filed and an investigation started. She was getting so many threats she had staff reporting them, and one of them goofed.

Question: Did the $11k reward help? Was anyone prosecuted as a result?

Why Fedex's $228 million settlement may dent Uber, Lyft, Postmates, Homejoy and Caviar (Video)

The employee distinction is important. The appeals court ruled the workers weren't independent contractors because Fedex controlled the manner in which the drivers did their jobs, including scheduling, appearance and equipment requirements. At Uber, drivers must pay for their fuel and the maintenance of their own vehicles.

Independent contractor versus employee

1. Whether the person performing services is engaged in an occupation or business distinct from that of the principal;
        2. Whether or not the work is a part of the regular business of the principal or alleged employer;
        3. Whether the principal or the worker supplies the instrumentalities, tools, and the place for the person doing the work;
        4. The alleged employee’s investment in the equipment or materials required by his or her task or his or her employment of helpers;
        5. Whether the service rendered requires a special skill;
        6. The kind of occupation, with reference to whether, in the locality, the work is usually done under the direction of the principal or by a specialist without supervision;
        7. The alleged employee’s opportunity for profit or loss depending on his or her managerial skill;
        8. The length of time for which the services are to be performed;
        9. The degree of permanence of the working relationship;
        10. The method of payment, whether by time or by the job; and
        11. Whether or not the parties believe they are creating an employer-employee relationship may have some bearing on the question, but is not determinative since this is a question of law based on objective tests.

Going to check out some of this. https://cbsla.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/268946016-uber-v-berwick.pdf
Look at page 8-9, which are pages 14-15 out of 21.

I'm guessing it's a bunch of things. But still, they're going to appeal anyway.

I'm not a lawyer, but I guess there are some things they can do to get them back as independent contractors.
I hear that drivers can be kicked off if they drop below 4.6 stars. It'd be better if they let prospective passengers decide. That is, set it up so they can filter out drivers with lower ratings. They should allow tipping via the app (can't be done currently, can it?). They may also want to rethink vehicle age requirements and allow prospective passengers to decide if they want to filter out vehicles older than 10 years old.

I don't know if I agree with some of the ruling. But it's California for an individual person there. It's going to be appealed.

I am not a lawyer.

It depends on your community. Philadelphia owns their water and natural gas infrastructure, but over the years they have taken the profits to plug budget holes rather than reinvest in the infrastructure. The result is something of a crisis - the natural gas pipelines are borderline dangerous and their current capital plan would take 66 years to replace them.

On the other hand, out here in the 'burbs we have privately run water, electric, and gas. Only the sewer is run by the township. And guess which one was under-capitalized? Currently, nearly all development has stopped in the township while we wait up to 25 years for them to finish updating the sewer system. This is not a result of over-development - our suburb is very old and was almost fully developed in the 20s. This is a result of decades of neglect. I'm certain they would have let a communications infrastructure die slowly as well.

Wrong, sir!

That's so wrong I'm going to let wonka rub it in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

They were cited as violating the Lacy act of 1900. The law is 115 years old. that is a bit before Bush jr's time and a bit before his father's time as well. So... where did you get that information?

Your link did not cite the Gibson incident at all. Please cite a link that attributes the gibson raid to Bush. I think you just made that up and effectively attempted a really stupid lie.

http://www.bizjournals.com/nas...

http://www.science20.com/scien...

The issue involved fingerboards imported from India. The Lacy act involves people basically smuggling things through the customs of other countries and then into the US. The idea was to punish companies in the US that break the laws of other countries when they export things.

The problem is that Gibson did not break the Lacy act because their exports complied entirely with Indian law. The Indian government has no problem with what Gibson did. Therefore it is not possible for them to be in violation of the Lacy act.

And it should further be noted that Gibson's competitors also imported fingerboards from India and were not raided.

Gibson apparently paid the Federal government 300,000 dollars to fuck off. Because the legal fees exceeded the costs of that fine.

Welcome to the 21st century. Were the government abuses you with your own money and if you want to resist you have to spend more of your own money.

The summary doesn't directly mention the underlying problem of structuring cash transactions to avoid the $10,000 reporting threshold to the IRS. This is a huge problem for cash-only businesses. Most banks will tell businesses to deposit smaller sums of cash to avoid the paperwork hassles. Most businesses do that not knowing that it will raise red flags with the IRS. The IRS can confiscates all the cash from the bank account without filing criminal charges, and isn't legally obligated to return the money if they don't file criminal charges. The only way to get the money back is to go to court and/or make a huge public outcry.

... manufacturing in America.

OK, I bet there is an image of a crowd of thousands of men with their lunch pails all walking into their shift at the plant who then jump on the line and build cars.

No.

At best it's a couple of dozen people working in the back office and some techs to walk around and monitor the automated plant. So, this guy is getting all this government money, hiring only a few hundred people, and the we the tax payer are in the hole. Does anyone really think that the piddly amount of jobs provided compensates for all those billions and billions in tax breaks?

And it's the same with traditional car plants. Here in Georgia, Mercedes got this very sweet one sided deal at our expense. MY tax dollars are subsidizing the rich executives at Mercedes.

We the taxpayer are getting screwed. We actually have government taking money out of the little people's pockets and putting into the billionaire's pockets. Musk is doing the same and has done nothing to earn it. This worship of him is just pathetic and idiotic and shows the mindless groupthink of Silicon Valley and how they have decayed to idiocy.

So, spin it all you want and be a sycophant, but the truth remains that the plutocrats are screwing us and blaming us for our economic troubles. They lie and say we can work harder and be successful. They ship jobs overseas or hire H1-bs and lie and say Americans do not have the skills. And we have the deluded who go along thinking that they too can join their ranks by playing along.

An added wrinkle are other corps claiming that Radio Shack is holding their proprietary customer data (presumably related to cel phone and plan sales) and demanding that such data not be included in the sale:

http://www.bizjournals.com/dal...

I don't care how many people per day or per anything else ride the rails - why should I subsidize their ticket prices?

Here's just one article that talks about the subsidies and where they lie. The northeast regional routes of Amtrak was making over $200 million in profit each year. Once Amtrak became a foster-child of the federal government the federal government started interfering. Most of the money-losing routes that Amtrak operates are there because of demands from local members of Congress in order to gain their support for more subsidies.

Here's another article highlighting that Amtrak's operating law required them to become profitable by 2002. That didn't happen.

Why should you subsidize truckers and airports? It costs $3M to build 1 mile of interstate. Sure it looks nice on the back of all those semis that they pay $6,000 in fuel taxes. Too, bad, they don't tell you the damage they do to the pavement is far greater than that. But, of course, if we didn't subsidize the trucking industry and made them pay the real cost of transporting goods, then prices would go up and you, the taxpayer would still be paying for it, plus a profit percentage on top of it.

Why focus on passenger rail as the problem. Most airports are heavily subsidize in the US. Yes, carriers pay gate fees, but those fees do not cover the true cost of building and maintaining the infrastructure.

Face it, Amtrak, highways, airports, etc. are subsidized by the taxpayer because they ultimately benefit the taxpayer.

I don't care how many people per day or per anything else ride the rails - why should I subsidize their ticket prices?

Here's just one article that talks about the subsidies and where they lie. The northeast regional routes of Amtrak was making over $200 million in profit each year. Once Amtrak became a foster-child of the federal government the federal government started interfering. Most of the money-losing routes that Amtrak operates are there because of demands from local members of Congress in order to gain their support for more subsidies.

Here's another article highlighting that Amtrak's operating law required them to become profitable by 2002. That didn't happen.

Really? How do you know? Have you taken a poll?

Here's a link to an actual survey that said only 19% would hire him. This is a poll done with employers that would be the most interested in his skillset based on the industry they serve.
http://www.bizjournals.com/was...

Unless of course they were corrupt. Are you telling me then that not only is our government corrupt but so are most business owners.

I am a business man and I wouldn't hire him. Why? Because I can't trust he won't leak intellectual properly or customer list to my competitors. If a man can leak information about his country and be willing to face death, what is he willing to do to get rich where the risk is much less? What about my company's reputation should my customers find out he works for me? After all, I don't control their opinion of Snowden and I may lose their trust in the process.

Because a honest man would hire him in a heart beat

Funny, he lied on his application regarding his education. Although I wouldn't condemn him for doing so it is still a great argument against your statement.

Additionally, the Slashdot story is disingenuous (shocking!) when it brings up Microsoft's opposition to Washington proposition I-1098 a couple years back. Yes, Ballmer was a big contributor against the initiative but it was widely unpopular across the entire state, failing at the polls by a 2-to-1 margin.

Quick recap on what that was for non-Washington residents: WA is one of seven US states with no personal income tax. Sales taxes vary by locality, but in general they are higher than average in WA in order to make up for the lack of a sales tax (in Seattle, for example, sales tax is nearly 10%).

I-1098 proposed that individuals making more than $200K/year or families making $400K/year pay a state income tax, with a higher rate applying to those above $500K/$1M. Given WA's economically skewed demographics, the tax would hit many in the greater Seattle area (around the top 3% including Microsoft, Boeing, Amazon, Google, Nintendo etc. employees), while outside Seattle it would be more like the top .01%.

Interestingly, Bill Gates was a visible I-1098 supporter, while Steve Ballmer was a major opponent. But keep in mind the above: the demographics of Washington State are such that had this been an issue of just Microsoft and other big corps fighting it, or "rich Seattle" against the rest of the state which is not so full of rich techies, it would have won handily. Instead, it lost by a 64-36 ratio because voters across the entire state, including a majority of Democrats, thought it was a backdoor way to introduce a state income tax whose threshold would conveniently be lowered by the state legislature whenever it found itself in a money crunch.

So long story short - it may very well be true that Microsoft is dodging state taxes that it should be paying. If so, it should definitely be held to account. However, the fact that Ballmer or Microsoft supported a widely popular anti-state income tax initiative is not related to whether the company is shirking its tax duties.

Clearly "what the people want" isn't working here. So why don't they simply sell the cars direct there anyway and disregard the law? Although I could not find a poll for Virginia, a Texas poll showed 85% of people in favor of allowing direct-to-consumer sales of cars. It would seem near-impossible to get a unanimous verdict to convict, as is required in Virginia.

Seven Year Old San Francisco Girl Struck and Killed By Uber Driver; Uber Denies Responsibility http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/...

Boston Uber Driver Charged with indecent Assault and Battery http://www.bostonglobe.com/met...

Off-Duty LA Uber Driver Accused of Sexual Assault http://www.bizjournals.com/los...

Chicago Uber Driver With Felony Conviction Charged With Battery For Allegedly Hitting Passenger http://www.forbes.com/sites/el...

Writer and Activist Reports Being Choked in DC; Uber Denies The Event and Responsibility http://valleywag.gawker.com/ub...

DC Uber Driver Allegedly Assaults Customer for Burping http://www.washingtoncitypaper...

San Francisco Uber Customer Claims Abuse and Assault by Uber Driver (Pando) http://pando.com/2013/11/25/ub...

Passenger Struck In Head With Hammer by UberX Driver http://www.forbes.com/sites/el...

Uber Driver Pulls Gun on Valet in Atlanta http://pando.com/2014/09/08/at...

Uber Driver Punches Passenger in Oklahoma http://newsok.com/oklahoma-cit...

Lyft Driver Attacks Pedestrian in San Francisco http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news...

Lyft Driver Brandishes Knife in Los Angeles http://www.laweekly.com/2013-0...

Uber Customer Sues for $2M over Alleged Driver Stabbing in DC http://dcinno.streetwise.co/20...

DC Uber Driver Allegedly Rapes Customer http://betabeat.com/2013/03/ub...

Uber Driver Charged with Fondling Passenger in Chicago http://valleywag.gawker.com/ub...

DC Uber Driver Arrested for Alleged Rape But Not Charged Despite Strong Evidence http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

Another DC Uber Driver Accused of Molesting Uber Rider http://valleywag.gawker.com/an...

Passenger Struck In Head With Hammer by UberX Driver http://www.forbes.com/sites/el...

Uber Driver in India Accused of Rape http://www.bbc.c

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/...
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.c...
http://www.bizjournals.com/san...
http://www.naturalgasintel.com...
http://www.mercurynews.com/bus...

Airlines are supported in several ways. One is that they pay less fuel tax. Then there are the bailouts that they get every now and then. The tax breaks that they give to airports. Not to mention incentives, grants, funding, etc to airports.

Replying to myself because I couldn't be troubled to read my google search returns before hitting "Submit" on my last comment.

The Distribution Center is toast.

I still have fond memories of the Radio-Shack-that-was, and that place is a part of them. "4 cubic feet of random parts for $25? I'll take 4!"

Brand new TEAC FD-55 360k floppy disk drives (originally intended for Tandy 1000 family systems)? Worked great with my TRS-80 and my old CP/M system, and a steal at $20 each.

Nothing bad actually happened. No one was killed or injured.

So much safer than your gas and steel industies
http://www.al.com/news/birming...
http://blog.al.com/spotnews/20...
http://www.bizjournals.com/pit...
http://blog.al.com/live/2013/0...

Apparently he has some business customers willing to pay for the service, and also certain (smaller) service providers apparently now pay him to offer the service to their customers.

"Consumers can use the service for free but businesses have to pay. For consumers, robocalls are just an annoyance. But for businesses, robocalls cost them a significant amount of resources (salaries, benefits, etc.). They are more than happy to pay for a service that reduces their costs."

Reference

Well Duh, that's been figured out already, thanks to McAfee.

McAfee says he can make internet hack-proof

Your reference is outdated. The Google Atlanta office was closed in 2012, and the Austin one in 2009, http://www.bizjournals.com/aus... http://www.bizjournals.com/atl...

Your reference is outdated. The Google Atlanta office was closed in 2012, and the Austin one in 2009, http://www.bizjournals.com/aus... http://www.bizjournals.com/atl...

I agree - so I looked it up and apparently they *were* doing this (via investments):

http://www.solarcity.com/newsr...

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB...

But then their new CEO decided to abandon them:

http://www.bizjournals.com/san...

And then they changed their mind *again* and wanted to invest, but the PUC decided against it:

https://gigaom.com/2012/05/10/...

So, basically WTF. It's a complicated situation...

How many is that? 0? 3?

There were 22 Fortune 500 companies in Silicon Valley in 2013. I worked at four of them.

When you are on an island with no coal, oil or gas and consumption is so low that you have to use small and inefficeint generators then it doesn't take much of a price drop for solar to be cheaper.

Hawaii does have a coal plant, but they have to ship the coal in, and they are big enough for the generators to be efficient, even though it doesn't leave much slack.

and probably would have imported some geothermal technology from NZ, Iceland or wherever a couple of decades ago.

If it was cheaper I would have expected them to do it just to improve their bottom line. Seems that they have one in Puna. Of course, it also mentions that the largest/most populated island, Oahu, isn't a good candidate for geothermal power. To the point that they're considering stringing a power cable undersea to connect the islands in order to transfer power between them, exploiting Big Island's geothermal plant for Oahu's benefit.

As for Alaska, hell no, save the oil for heating and selling down south. We have coal up here as well, we're currently in the process of trying to restart a coal power plant - it's even a 'clean coal' one that was built with the assistance of federal subsidies for the purpose of research.

Finally, I swear I've had a conversation similar to this before about Hawaii - Sure it's a special case, but that makes it a good candidate to look at for the potential problems the mainland could face if solar installs explode. IE look at where Hawaii is now to see where the southern US could be in 15-20 years.

The $100M construction bond for the San Francisco 49er's Levi Stadium is tied to lease revenue from a shopping mall being built by the team. Santa Clara approved a $25M construction bond for stadium-related improvements that's tied to property taxes. Silicon Valley might be the exception, as most local government depend on sales tax revenue for their own bonds.

That sounds great and all... but court decisions that bankrupt companies result in pretty much the same thing every time. The company goes bankrupt and, at best, the lawyers get paid. Then the company reopens with all the same people that made the decision in charge but under new ownership and the debt gets written off. The old owners would be all those same employees that had their retirement in stock which is now worthless. The people in charge are long retired and don't care.

I agree that it's not fair, but there simply doesn't exist the legal mechanisms to make managers that made these decisions over a decade ago pay. The primary culprit seemed to be Steve Jobs and God took care of him.

Somehow I don't think a multibillion dollar settlement is going to force Google or Apple into bankruptcy:

http://www.bizjournals.com/san...

Apple Inc.'s $158.8 billion cash stockpile more than triples the $48.5 billion currently in the coffers of the U.S. government, according to a new report.
Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc. also have also posted cash and cash equivalents worth more than the total U.S. Treasury at roughly $84 billion and $58 billion, respectively, according to U.S. Trust data cited by British newspaper the Telegraph.

Part of the reason they have these multi billion dollar cash reserves is by illegally colluding to keep employee turnover down and reduce wages.

Is this what you're referring too?

http://www.bizjournals.com/mil...

In all fairness, these weren't Harley employees, but worked for a contracting firm that did IT for Harley (according to the link). Harley then decided to outsource their IT to Infosys (which I don't see as a smart move regardless).

It looks like this took place two years ago.....I don't remember seeing anything about it when it happened.
http://www.jsonline.com/busine...

First, the public subsidy.

Fed funds, the U.S. overnight inter-bank lending rate, opened 0.08 percent, within the Federal Reserve’s target of zero to 0.25 percent, ICAP Plc, the world’s largest inter-dealer broker, said in an e-mailed statement.

Fed funds traded from 0.06 percent to 0.3125 percent yesterday, according to data posted on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s website. The fed effective, or a volume-weighted average of rates on trades arranged by major brokers, was 0.09 percent.

This this is on Oct. 2 2014: 0.09% is free money. Who gets this free money: the big banks, B of A, Citi, Chase. Also the top four investment firms which are also banks: #1 Goldman Sachs, #2 Morgan Stanley, #3 JPMorgan Chase, #4 Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Note the overlap, there is no meaningful difference between banks and brokerage firms.

So what is the result? Why the Fed's Zero Interest Rate Policy Isn't Working.

But, the Fed’s problem – like Japan a decade ago – is as the International Monetary Fund puts it in its latest financial stability report, the economy is “bifurcated”. Many large American companies, particularly those with global operations, are highly profitable and liquid. Unsurprisingly, for them “bank lending conditions and capital market financing remain easy”, the IMF notes.

But many small and medium-sized companies – or the entities that typically create jobs inside America, not overseas – find it hard to raise funds. A survey conducted by the International Franchise Association in Washington, for example, notes that whereas in March half of its members expected credit conditions to improve soon, now less than a quarter expect any easing; even as Treasury yields fall.

And the lack of any effective oversight: Bank of America fined $7.65M over accounting blunder.

The Wall Street Journal reports the SEC charged BofA with breaking securities laws pertaining to record-keeping and internal controls after the bank disclosed in April that it had discovered a nearly $4 billion accounting error.

So 7,650,000 divided by 4,000,000,000 = 0.019125 or 1.9125%. Note that this error existed for years, and it meant that BofA saved a huge amount of money by having $4 billion less in capital reserves then was required.

But to understand what the fine really means it should be compared to the market capitation (total worth on the stock market), which on Oct 2 2014 was $177 billion. So 7,650,000 divided by 117,000,000,000 = 4.32203e-05 = .0000432203 = 0.00432203%. Ohh, that must have really really hurt.

No one was held accountable. No one lost their job, was demoted, got a bad mark on their permanent record. The stock holders end up paying the fine. That's what it means to have no effective oversight.

So the NFL is in trouble and B of A gets a fine valued at 0.00432203% of their current net worth. That is why my brain hurts.

Doesn't sound safe to me:

DEP finds 243 water sources contaminated by gas exploration

I can't help but wonder how many more water sources will be have chemicals leach into them even after the fracking is finished. On the positive side, sometimes the contamination diminishes over time to safe levels.

Uber and Lyft are both much cheaper than traditional "regulated" taxis, and this scheme only cost the other company and driver. So as a consumer, why do I care?

Well you should care, because if you get into an accident, you're paying on your own. That's what the family of this poor girl hit by an Uber driver found out.

A key aspect of Uber's business model is that it claims it is not a transportation provider, it does not employ any of the drivers accepting rides on its platform, and it does not accept liability for their actions. The state Public Utilities Commission in September voted to require Uber to get a $1 million per incident commercial liability policy, but Uber — which argues the PUC has no jurisdiction to regulate a communications application — has appealed that ruling.

And frankly I see no justification for Uber not to get insurance coverage for their drivers.

For comparison, look at New York's taxi medallion system. All it has done is raise the entry price to astronomical levels, which leaves the consumer paying outrageous prices and the drivers making very little.

I agree that the NYC regulatory system is rife with abuse, but the fault lies in the execution. All laws are prone to abuse if your have corrupt politicians in charge. You can't use the excuse that laws have the potential to be abused to not pass any laws or regulations.

I would argue instead that there should be some regulation, as least insofar as the public safety and health hazard aspects are concerned. Lets face it- all private enterprises are in the business to make money. One way of doing that is to reduce costs as low as possible, including paying for things like insurance, background checks on drivers etc. If there is no legal compulsion you can bet that they will cut these costs to the bone.

Interesting - apparently they were suing Deloitte and KPMG but have now dropped them from the lawsuit. It seems odd that they'd let the auditors off the hook.

Many "grandmas" have embraced the Internet.

For example, this study from two years ago says that more than half of senior citizens now use it. They often don't know how to use it well, granted, but they're using it. And many of them *do* know how to use it well.

are you kidding, California is nearly bankrupt.

No, it isn't.

I'm not sure about that. Kansas City where they started is not a major metropolitcan area. Austin is. What seems to be the common thread is that local governments are willing to play ball to get it done.

Google is interested in the city I live in (Raleigh, NC), but also several of the smaller cities nearby, including Durham (pop: 240k), Cary (150k), and Chapel Hill (60k). One reason is that these cities (and a few more) got together and came up with their own plan to introduce gigabit internet, called the "North Carolina Next Generation Network" (ncngn.net). They made an agreement that to facilitate this network, they would provide for things like easy permitting once a project is approved and non-discriminatory leasing of city owned resources (e.g. http://www.bizjournals.com/tri...). They put out an RFP for the network before Google showed interest and had 8 respondents. AT&T is one of them, and they plan to roll out their "gigapower" thing, the same one they have in Austin. Time Warner is also participating, but hasn't released more details.

So I'm not 100% sure anymore whether these companies are cherry-picking or just chasing Google (since AT&T announced before Google expressed interest here, and in fact Google has not committed).

This describes it in a little more detail.

My guess is that he turned off a webapp which then caused the HTTP server to provide open directory access. This doesn't explain why he was doing it though or indeed why he was able to.

This. Exactly this. Hospital IT... You fail.
Captcha: failings

(I am CS/BME)

This describes it in a little more detail.

My guess is that he turned off a webapp which then caused the HTTP server to provide open directory access. This doesn't explain why he was doing it though or indeed why he was able to.

The data doesn't lie.

That paper is not about facts but statistics (as in "lies, damned lies, and statistics"). Not the same thing.