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I have a series of blog posts on artificial scarcity and digital bits:
http://yuhongbao.blogspot.com/2010/06/artificial-scarcity-intro.html

I can survive here.

I can survive there indefinitely.

hint: nobody lives there. nobody lives there for hundreds and hundreds of miles, and there are no roads.

As a member of the master race, PC gamer, I'd laugh at you both... except I find myself reloading the ads on the steam page every half an hour to see if there's a deal on a game I already own on the 360.

You know, that's been done before, and (hopefully) will be done again.

    I forget the name of the malware, but there was a nasty that basically took over IP networking on Windows machines, and pumped everything through somewhere in Eastern Europe.. ... then the server went down. Hopefully, it was someone saying "Hmmm, malware, unplug the network cables."

    And about a dozen people dragged their home computers in to me to fix. Well, theirs, their friends, family, and apparently they had told everyone in their neighborhood.. There was no graceful redemption, no "think of the users". It broke, and people all over the world cleaned up yet another malware infested machine. It may have been tens of thousands, it may have been millions. It wasn't newsworthy, because we just did what we always do.

    Actually, unless a piece of malware managed to get on every Windows machine in the world, and absolutely wipe out everything on all direct and network attached drives, before popping a Warner Brothers cartoon "That's All Folks", would I even consider it noteworthy. Then again, it couldn't be newsworthy, as virtually every reporters computer would now be lacking an OS.

    All the really managed to do is give the malware author a few more minutes of fame. Whoopdie-fucking-doo.

"Does this answer your question?"

Your faithful student,
Pinkamena Fourthwallbrecha Pie.

P.S.: Can anypony help animator Lauren Faust find Derpy?

Hi This is dimond and i am form bangladesh. I was looking for some of the informational in this post. I think i am lucky to find your article. I really wish that i could meet you. Come to my country i will show everything about our country and will discuss something about your subject. My address is Khulna, Bangladesh.I have a blog related to the program. Please come and give me your expert opinion. All about PC

Sorry to burst your ideology, but pretty much all your facts are wrong.

>>There's a few hundred thousand in this country that are rich, and the rest of us are, or soon will be, dirt poor.

The US has the most millionaires of any country in the world, with 3M (about 1 out of 100 Americans is a millionaire!): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millionaire#Number_of_millionaires_by_country

The real median household income rose steadily from 1947 to the present day (not counting the current recession): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:United_States_Income_Distribution_1947-2007.svg

This includes all levels of income earners in America.

>>We can't manufacture most of the goods and services we depend on.

Manufacturing is doing fine: http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2011/08/us-industrial-production-resumes-growth.html

>>It's just a matter of time until they can (and will) take the lead and do away with our exploitations.

If China stops exporting to us, there will be a disruption of our market as we shift production around. But China's economy would be destroyed.

There is a difference between manufacturing and this. Manufacturing was not destroyed, because it provides a valuable service for our society without which it cannot function - so it was outsourced

US has never manufactured more than it does now, it seems, even adjusted for inflation: http://croatiabreak.blogspot.com/2010/08/lie-us-manufacturing-is-in-decline-why.html

It looks like the same thing may happen to retail.

The associations that profit from selling ABA services to understandably scared parents claim that it's "proven" because the kids they use it on show development. Note the lack of any controls or rigorous scientific studies -- the research on autistics is full of poorly-designed studies without controls, unfounded assumptions, charlatans and so forth. (Anyone interested in the topic should check out the blog of researcher Michelle Dawson.)

The few times researchers have tried to compare treatment approaches, they've found that ABA isn't any better than other interactive methods like Floortime, and in some cases (like a major study in the UK a few years ago) the ABA kids end up falling behind other groups. That's because being autistic doesn't mean not developing any further, it means having a brain wired to function & develop differently from that of non-autistics.

You should seek out the many other parents online that aren't using ABA; they've been finding their way together online with the help of autistic adults (some of whom are also parents), and doing quite well. The best person to start with would be Estée Klar; she knows where all of the resources/groups are online for different approaches, and her blog/site is quite interesting/informative to boot.

>You nerds, never seen a vagina

Oooooh burn!

What a pity that we're not all so insanely pathetic so as to be obsessed with them. like a fourteen year old, or so doe-eyed as to be blind to the irrelevance of Mr. Paul's PHD.

If you can't find responses to their claims, then you haven't been looking very hard. Basic conservation laws and Maxwell's equations accessible to high school physics students reveal serious problems. See http://dealingwithcreationisminastronomy.blogspot.com/p/challenges-for-electric-universe.html

The complaint (PDF) included a 3rd claim for "negligence". Complaint, paragraphs 47 to 58.

The defendant moved to dismiss the 3rd claim for "negligence" on preemption grounds and the EFF filed an amicus curiae brief supporting the request for dismissal of the negligence claim on preemption grounds.

Thereafter the Judge granted the motion to dismiss the 3rd claim for negligence on preemption grounds.

You can say whatever you want, but the documents don't lie.

By suggesting that this didn't really happen, you are misleading anyone who cares to accept you as credible, and your motivations for doing so are curious indeed.

You can play whatever games you like, but I deeply resent your suggestion that the summary which I wrote was somehow inaccurate. If you don't intend any "offense", don't say something I wrote was wrong when it's right, and the only thing "wrong" is your outlandish argument that the papers do not mean what they say.

The complaint (PDF) included a 3rd claim for "negligence". Complaint, paragraphs 47 to 58.

The defendant moved to dismiss the 3rd claim for "negligence" on preemption grounds and the EFF filed an amicus curiae brief supporting the request for dismissal of the negligence claim on preemption grounds.

Thereafter the Judge granted the motion to dismiss the 3rd claim for negligence on preemption grounds.

You can say whatever you want, but the documents don't lie.

By suggesting that this didn't really happen, you are misleading anyone who cares to accept you as credible, and your motivations for doing so are curious indeed.

You can play whatever games you like, but I deeply resent your suggestion that the summary which I wrote was somehow inaccurate. If you don't intend any "offense", don't say something I wrote was wrong when it's right, and the only thing "wrong" is your outlandish argument that the papers do not mean what they say.

This is an urban legend. Touch typing wasn't invented at the beginnings of QWERTY, it came later so jamming wasn't an issue. See The Truth of QWERTY. In short, slowing down typists or preventing jams were never intended.

Anyway, this Dextr keyboard will fail. This layout was tried at the beginnings of the French Minitel, for the same reasons. Given the feedback they quickly reverted to AZERTY (the QWERTY variant used in France). And this happened in the first half of the 80s, before everyone had a computer.

In fairness, a description of the other two competing Discovery proposals is here,

http://futureplanets.blogspot.com/2012/05/and-discovery-nominees-are.html

along with links to NASA quad charts for each, and to larger articles discussing each proposal in detail.

NASA is due (this month?) to make a final selection between three competing Discovery-class proposals. Among them is the Titan Mare Explorer, the first attempt to put a boat on an extraterrestrial sea. How cool would that be? Good overviews of the proposal are here;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_Mare_Explorer
http://futureplanets.blogspot.com/2011/08/time-and-updates.html

A more detailed description is here;
http://www.kiss.caltech.edu/workshops/titan2010/presentations/aharonson.pdf

Disclosure: If the TiME mission is selected, I am hoping to work on it.

The EU "Electric Sun" makes no testable predictions. When asking EU 'theorists' about the value of the magnetic field around the Sun according to their Z-pinch model, and how it is calculated, so we can compare to spacecraft measurements, we get no answer. Attempts to build a model based on their descriptions generate values that are factors of thousands to millions of times larger than the measurments.
That is not a characteristic of a working theory.
If we ask about the particle energy and flux of particles based on the EU solar 'cathode' model, we get no answer. Attempts to build a model based on their descriptions generate values that indicate that if such currents existed, they would be fatal to satellites and astronauts.
This is not a characteristic of a working theory.
For a quick summary of the failures of EU, see
http://dealingwithcreationisminastronomy.blogspot.com/p/challenges-for-electric-universe.html

What's with the snarks? What's so funny?

http://cis471.blogspot.com/2011/01/before-twitter-revolutions-there-was.html

http://w2.eff.org/Activism/russian_coup_netuse.article

Date: Tue, 20 Aug 91 00:17:31 +0300 (MSD)

            Hi!

            Don't worry, we're OK, though frightened and angry. Moscow is full
            of tanks and military machines, I hate them. They try to close all
            mass media, they shutted up CNN an hour ago, Soviet TV transmits
            opera and old movies. But, thanks Heaven, they don't consider
            RELCOM mass media or they simply forgot about it. Now we transmit
            information enough to put us in prison for the rest of our life :-).
            Hope all will turn out well at long last...

            Polina

Date: Wed, 21 Aug 91 21:12:26 +0300 (MSD)

            Thank you, Larry!

            Now all information media are on, CNN transmites our
            "Time" TV program, and I can watch them both!
            I'v heard (may be it was CNN) that they withdraw
            armed forces from Baltics cities. I'm not near the
            parliament, I'm still at the computer, but the situation
            on the net became lighter now and I hope to sleep a little, it was
            my dream during last two days :-)

            You can't even imagine, how grateful we are for your
            help and support in this terrible time! The best thing
            is to know, that we aren't alone.

Looking at the above, and then looking at this "discussion", I have one word for all of you: regression.

I normally ignore AC posts, but do want to point out that you are absolutely wrong about many things. I'd recommend that you go read the full brief of leaked documents, testimony, etc..

Now, as a matter of law: If the DOJ pays for John Doe to go in to a gun store and buy guns, then pays John Doe to sell those guns across the border, the DOJ is responsible right? Without the DOJ funding, it simply would not have happened. So you are absolutely wrong. The DOJ did sell guns to the drug cartels, the fact that they did so by proxy does not change that fact.

Next, what idiot in their right mind would believe this was "tracking", as was the cover up story given? There were no mechanisms in place to track anything. The only thing that could possibly be tracked were the John Doe people doing the leg work. These guns did not have serial numbers tracked to recipients nor did they have any homing devices installed. Anyone that knows illegal activity knows that the serial numbers are gone the minute someone buys them in Mexico. You have the same chance of tracking a stick as you do with tracking these guns. Ballistics will only work to track a gun _after_ it has been used, and even then would only be valid if they were used against your side! We don't have ballistics cops working in Mexico, and in fact Mexico had no idea this was happening and were not working in cooperation with the US DOJ.

How can you, and MSM claim this was just "stupid"? It was outright illegal and cost the lives of several hundred people in Mexico and a US Border agent. Stupid would have been being caught selling guns that back fired, or fell apart when they were fired.

Now, in addition to trying to find the documents here is a nice read for you.

http://bit.ly/NiG0Pd http://t.co/cllal5Si http://t.co/61mc8RhH "G0TT http://t.co/2IwAlvY5 http://bit.ly/PcfqhV https://t.co/jwMzk7F1 DAMNN http://shar.es/tWa3W WRiTE" http://t.co/Ncb94x7N "iNHERiT http://t.co/9nZ5S3TI THE http://thkpr.gs/Owh8s2 WiND" http://shar.es/qqL5f http://t.co/9tzQHbJm http://shar.es/t3hJe "0BAMA http://t.co/e0To1A6F iN http://shar.es/t0HTK 2o12" http://bit.ly/LnKsCf UNDiSPUTED http://t.co/8ft6RZUI TRUTH http://shar.es/qqL5f "iNHERiT http://t.co/rMBC60Qp THE http://t.co/yQdpnkvM WiND" http://mysp.ac/MKfQYW ...SEE H0W iT W0RKS http://mysp.ac/N1Tuik http://mysp.ac/MWI9BE F0RWARD http://t.co/saXOq3yA "0BAMA http://t.co/QGXopqHg iN http://t.co/rMBC60Qp 2o12" http://www.mrjimvinnbur.blogspot.com/ THEY D0 ABS0LUTELY N0THiNG http://bit.ly/PcfqhV DELUSi0NAL http://t.co/PKtVRdJc ANGRY - SELFiSH http://t.co/8ft6RZUI LYiNG http://t.co/LyWpopfJ http://t.co/vwzZ5lui STiNGY - C0RRUPT http://t.co/vwzZ5lui GREEDY http://t.co/E18eVzgx CR00KED http://t.co/vwzZ5lui EViL http://t.co/rWUOxWSL http://bit.ly/PcfqhV http://bit.ly/PchS8d HATEFUL http://mysp.ac/MKfQYW RACiST http://bit.ly/PchS8d C0MMUNiST http://bit.ly/PchS8d REPUBLiCANS http://shar.es/quDgX ALL HAVE C0MMiTTED P0LiTiCAL SUiCiDE4 2o12 http://t.co/p1IhoPG5 ...THE UNRE-ELECTABLE BiGTiME LAZY PATHETiC WHiNiNGASS SUPER CRYBABY http://bit.ly/MX95kC L0SER DEM0N J0HN "THE http://t.co/E2fvHoG0 SUPER http://shar.es/slHsh PACiFiER http://t.co/48LQ33ND SUCKA" B0EHNER http://t.co/qAa7KjS4 G0TT DAMNN WRiTE LUGAR iS CERTAiNLY 0UT & Y0U ARE DEFiNiTELY NEXT & THE UNM0TiVATED UNRE-ELECTABLE WELL KN0WN SUPER DASTARDLY WEAKMiNDED S0RRYASS QUiTTER & http://t.co/BNitLXQO L0SER DEM0N http://bit.ly/N00bmC ERiC "THE http://shar.es/tmDBc C0WARDLY http://bit.ly/N00bmC SUPER C0MMUNiST http://shar.es/tm9oK WEASEL" http://bit.ly/N00bmC CANT0R http://t.co/BNitLXQO G0TT DAMNN WRiTE LUGAR iS CERTAiNLY 0UT & Y0U ARE M0ST DEFiNiTELY NEXT & THE 0LD DECREPiT DUMBASS iT'S CERTAiNLY TiME 2RETiRE L0SER DEM0N http://t.co/xoQsTnz4 MiTCH "THE http://shar.es/sl3SS

Would you trust this man's opinion as to what is cool and what isn't?

If Google really cared, it would start by helping curbstomp Proposition 8

Google did oppose Prop 8 for most of the same reasons cited for the new campaign.

"Riiiiiiight.... no bigotry at all..... People *love* being referred to as "it"."

This is from the same group of people that want a THIRD option for gender. We have one, called "it". "It" is gender neutral. Language has meaning. Why is "it" not appropriate as a gender neutral term for people who want a third option besides Male and Female? Come on, give me a good reason.

Or are you supporting the "I want to define my sexuality the way I want, because I'm 'special'" rules? You know, the ones that come up with new terms every time a negative connotation gets applied to their old term they used to like.

Kind of like how "Retarded" (perfectly acceptable term) was changed to "mentally challenged" (more complex, but perfectly acceptable) was changed to whatever the current PC term is, because we don't want to hurt feelings.

Or like "Negro" became "black" became "African American" to whatever is acceptable now.

It is freaking moronic because it just shifts to the next term.

You gonna call this guy a "cat" because he was altered to look like one? http://farm1.static.flickr.com/25/35853834_dba9b1ed67.jpg

Or Lizard Man ? http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Hrv8sw33RWc/TdKLWjZSBCI/AAAAAAAAOIQ/xmDfa7xyMrc/s1600/The+Lizard+Man+3.jpg

Funny that you bring up churches that would refuse to officiate a "union" that, in many religious belief systems, is considered to be a sin and an evil side of our nature. It is funny(well, not that funny) because... http://claytonecramer.blogspot.com/2012/06/elaine-photography-punished-for-failure.html Title is "Elaine Photography Punished For Failure To Photograph Same-Sex "Commitment Ceremony".

So, everyone is supposed to just accept the homosexual lifestyle, but forget about some homosexuals accepting that a private company(actually, any private(i.e. non-government entity) entity) has the right to refuse business to anyone they wish. When someone calls homosexuals (or heterosexuals supporting the cause) out on doing things like this, those people tend to get smeared for being "hatemongers", or worse.

Frankly, I don't care what people do in their private lives. That is between them and God. I have no business judging people, or the issue(s). I just refuse to support the issue of "homosexual marriage" due to the fact that (mainly) I refuse to support causes that attempt to beat me over the head and force me to accept the cause.

Of course, I am against government licensing of marriage(and most other things), so there is that.

I use most powerfull backlink tool http://backlink-indexer.blogspot.com/ its free mate!

I use most powerfull backlink tool http://backlink-indexer.blogspot.com/ its free mate!

Gender should be based on Chromosome counts(X,Y) and not physical appearances. If anybody should be listed as anything else it is those rare people with a third X or a second Y. Surgery doesn't change gender, only appearances. Anything else is just idiocy. Should I get surgery to look like a cat, it doesn't make me one.

http://classymishmash.blogspot.com/2008/09/cat-man-man-who-underwent-surgery-to.html

Seriously why should we be having this conversation? How about a third option ... "Surgically Altered Gender Assignment". Fuck her/him/it if they want anything other than what she/he/it is.

A Korean person explains:

http://askakorean.blogspot.com/2012/07/no-evolution-in-korea.html#more

Make your own decisions about his reliability, of course, but he does have the advantage of being able to read the Korean-language media.

The reporting on this was overblown. All that was issue was two examples -

The controversy began in May, when Korea's Ministry of Education, Science and Technology announced that revised editions of high school textbooks would leave out discussion of two examples of evolution: the Archaeopteryx, an ancient ancestor to birds, and ancestors of the modern horse.

Not removing the subject from the textbooks -

The STR's Lim, meanwhile, says the group won't end its efforts to remove other evolution examples from Korean textbooks "one by one."

But that could be difficult, notes Choe. Government regulations mandate that all Korean science textbooks include a section on evolutionary theory with a discussion of the fossil record. STR sidestepped those rules by targeting two examples of evolution whose exact mechanisms evolutionary biologists still puzzle over, Choe says. "Korean newspapers give the impression that the whole discussion of evolution is disappearing" from textbooks, Choe says, "which is ridiculous, but exactly what the STR was aiming at."

So evolution in textbooks was never in danger, just two diagrams. And they were only in danger because they were apparently outdated; and they're not being removed, just fixed.

(See also this post by a Korean-American).

What STR did manage to pull off with three textbook publishers was this: STR convinced those publishers that two diagrams in their books -- one about the evolution of horses, and the other about archeopteryx -- and the text accompanying them were scientifically incorrect. Notice the claim here: the claim was not that the diagrams were against creationism. The claim was that the diagrams were _scientifically_ incorrect. And you know what? Technically, they were right! The diagram above showing the evolution of horses is horribly outdated, and the pictures no longer comport with the current scientific consensus.

What does this graph tell you?

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2TFMKwo394o/T8uuMgO0rxI/AAAAAAAAB7g/Ki-zwVPMegc/s400/PowerOutages.jpg

Now, when did Google purchase Motorola Mobility? No, try again. No, no, the correct answer is they haven't yet.

*BZZT* Thank you for playing. The answer we were looking for was: "What is May 22, 2012?" http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/weve-acquired-motorola-mobility.html

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If you go to http://minimsft.blogspot.com/ and read the comments, you'll find plenty of answers to those questions. For your convenience, I will reproduce them here.

So lets make this dupe into something worthwhile, how about it? lets here from all the guys inside MSFT, are you as fucking frustrated at this lame "Me too!" half ass Apple ripping off by your employer?

Yes. And it's not half ass, it's all the way. It's like someone seen iPad and decided to copy every single thing about it, whether good or retarded. But we seem to be better at copying the retarded stuff - like app walled garden or ARM devices being locked tight from the user.

Is the culture there so filled with PHBs and bullshit you wanna puke?

Yes. Most of it is on top level. Most of bullshit on bottom level comes from the idiotic stack ranking system. Smart people who could do great things are forced to compete against each other for "visibility" and somesuch crap.

What about Ballmer? Does his direction in any way inspire you, or are you like the rest of us and just wishing he'd go away?

I don't know a single person inside MS who likes Ballmer. He's universally hated and reviled. Some people want Gates back, so that we can bring the Evil Empire back and steamroll the competition by any and all means at our disposal (hey it's fun when you're on board of that steamroller!). Some want Sinofsky - fewer now with how Win8 turns out to be. Some just want anyone with a clue.

Also, can we stop buying various crap just to piss it all away?

DISPROVEN.

Using capital letters hasn't proven anything. All it has proven is that if you can't pound on the facts that you will pound on the table.

Keep trying, me laddo. You'll succeed never.

Three recent cases have shown that common sense may be creeping into the intellectual property situation -- this case, Apple's loss to Samsung and the Oracle v. Google case. The judges in the three cases minced no words -- see http://cis471.blogspot.com/2012/07/is-intellectual-property-situation.html

In general, you can do work or you can answer questions from management, but you can't do both.

Not buying it; we're not talking about some open-source, crowd-funded underdog, here - If you're really trying to convince me that communicating with customers when things go wrong is too much work for a company that has more money than the government, you've got a tough road ahead. It becomes even harder to convince me of such when taking into account Apple's history of deny, deny, deny.

Yawn. Apple commented that it was looking into the problem last night, and has now confirmed that it has been fixed.

Meanwhile: Google denies Android botnet claim, Google denies preventing anti-competition probe, Google denies 'cooking' search results,Samsung denies, and Samsung remains adamant in denying its full responsibility and unwilling to pay due compensation to all the deceased workers..

Stephen Wolfram has an interesting article giving his thoughts on the progression of particle physics and where he thinks it might be headed. http://motls.blogspot.com/2012/07/stephen-wolfram-on-higgs-particle.html

right here.

In general, you can do work or you can answer questions from management, but you can't do both.

Not buying it; we're not talking about some open-source, crowd-funded underdog, here - If you're really trying to convince me that communicating with customers when things go wrong is too much work for a company that has more money than the government, you've got a tough road ahead.

It becomes even harder to convince me of such when taking into account Apple's history of deny, deny, deny.

Too bad. I misremembered this as being a "The Oatmeal" comic, but still, you need to take a look at this.

Pedometer I think is self-explanatory.

Hemp brake (for breaking hemp)
Moldboard plow (a better plow)
Sulky (a lighteight horse-drawn two-wheeled cart)

Did you see this character there with you (assuming you're not Jester posting on /.):

http://resonaances.blogspot.com/2012/07/h-day-live.html

My favorite line from the onsite report "10:46 Standing ovations, screams and shouts, the audience throwing bras and underwear at the stage."

Personally I like this image:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Cmf9NdNvpWw/T_Pm8cpuljI/AAAAAAAAAww/LF-1GXkBNfM/s320/godparticle.jpg

Did you see this character there with you (assuming you're not Jester posting on /.):

http://resonaances.blogspot.com/2012/07/h-day-live.html

My favorite line from the onsite report "10:46 Standing ovations, screams and shouts, the audience throwing bras and underwear at the stage."

Personally I like this image:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Cmf9NdNvpWw/T_Pm8cpuljI/AAAAAAAAAww/LF-1GXkBNfM/s320/godparticle.jpg

And it would be cool to have gold fall from the sky. But that doesn't make the current machines useless. Remember, we are at the very start of this revolution.

As for printing a candy bar...huh? Why do that? Traditional manufacturing still has a role, at least for the foreseeable future.

On the other hand, I was playing with a RepRap printed herringbone gear yesterday. I thought it was pretty cool. They are very difficult to manufacture with traditional machinery, but not a problem with a 3D printer.

If you look at public hiring vs. private hiring, it's actually not doing too bad:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6tijg8WBl30/T2VQ7JzycYI/AAAAAAAAMd0/It-UpJrEni0/s1600/YoYChangePayrollFeb2012.jpg

Although it's still worse than other recessions.

Republicans don't believe in negative externalities, because it would force them to change their lifestyles.

I think a lot of our European friends continue to underestimate the size of the US. There are over 160 million utility poles in the US. The distance from Seattle to Miami is like the distance between London and Tehran. Changing all of those poles to steel or moving the lines underground is unnecessary. Powerlines are underground where they need to be--newer residential neighborhoods, newer towns, and downtowns of most cities--and they are above ground elsewhere. The reliability of power is already great. Big cities don't have power outages. Suburbs may have rare power outages from severe storms a couple times a year. It also depends on your area. Trees in Miami are stronger against wind than trees in Virginia, for instance. And though people in the US typically don't want powerlines running to their house (and most people don't have them unless they're in a 60 year old house), nobody cares if there are lines running down the road.

Additionally, to those saying that "Europe doesn't have power outages, even in storms," I think you fail to understand the power of storms in the US, and I think you glob the whole US together as a single place. There's not going to be a power outage in a city from gale-force winds, but there may be in the suburbs. I'm a grad student, and I see the international students routinely just sitting upstairs doing their work when the tornado sirens go off. No matter what I do, I cannot drive into their heads the power of severe storms, here. I've been told that they thought tornadoes were kind of like in the Wizard of Oz. They're not. Europe is no stranger to high winds and strong low pressure systems, but the US gets storms of these strength routinely. Hundreds, maybe thousands of supercell thunderstorms of these strength hit the US every year. They pop up along or in front of huge cold front systems that come through. It usually happens where the cold, Canadian air and the warm, moist Gulf of Mexico air meet--in the Midwest and South--and the Midwest and South are thusly well-equipped to handle them. The Gulf states are also well-equipped to handle hurricanes. The states on the east coast are not as equipped for handling these kinds of disasters because they do not need to be. Likewise, Alabama is not as well-equipped to handle snow as New York might be.

I'm a little curious about the medical uses for the technology. Terahertz EM radiation should have similar wavelengths to Ultrasound, which only penetrates a few inches and lacks resolution. It's very useful, don't get me wrong, but no replacement for X-rays, CT, or MRI (click for images of kidney stones using each modality). Plus, ultrasound is becoming even less reliable due to the obesity epidemic, as it can't penetrate a foot of fat very well. Per Wikipedia THz can penetrate low-water tissue several millimeters, which is similar to visible light seen by the unaided eye.

Dermatologists and Dentists may find it useful, but I'm having trouble seeing the application into other medical fields. (Someone can chime in if there's something, I haven't been keeping up on it.) IMHO, it's premature to consider installing these in the clinic. Before that happens there needs to be some unique and significant benefit, which outweighs the risks, and is cost effective. Until then, keep it in the research labs where portability and miniaturization is less of an issue. We don't need technology in the clinic for technology's sake, it just drives up costs and increases wait times.