Slashdot Mirror

That's OK. Out here in California, the State that bleeds Blue and is perpetually Democrat dominated (unassailably so at the State level) has roads just as bad (the top four worst cities in the nation for example), has the highest gas tax in the nation ($0.713 per gallon), over $117 BILLION in backlog transportation work, the highest State income tax, and a $777 BILLION State debt.

Michigan is a rank amateur when it comes to fiscal mismanagement and high taxes...

Just a FYI this covers only company stores, not "licensed" stores (which aren't run by Starbucks, and comprise about 40% of locations). Per: http://www.businessinsider.com... (that being said, good for them).

The guts?? The GUTS??

To pay for it, Meg just fired 30,000 people over the last 2 years, and is going to fire another 20,000 by next year. Sorry, Meg, that's chutzpah.

Anyone who's still at HP is hoping they're not next, or looking for another job.

Actually, according to this 2012 article, several of those are not in the top-25 list of most-dangerous cities. Flint and Detroit are on there (#1 and #2), Newark NJ is on there (but Camden is not), Philadelphia is on there, DC is on there at #21, but interestingly, Nashville TN beat both DC and Newark and was only barely beaten by Philly. WTF is going on in Nashville? Memphis, Little Rock, and Birmingham AL came in at numbers 5, 6, and 7, surprisingly. You got St. Louis right, though: it's #3. But I don't see LA (CA) on there anywhere, though Oakland and Stockton are on the list (though nowhere near LA). Also interestingly, no cities in Cook County IL are on there, but instead, Springfield and Rockford IL are on the list. New Orleans doesn't seem to be there either, but Baton Rouge is.

It seems like there might be some misconceptions about which cities are the most dangerous in America.

It depends how it is measured.

If you take polls relying on self reporting, then yes, the numbers are slightly declining.

If you take the number of NICS background checks then the numbers are up.

http://www.thetruthaboutguns.c...

Most states have no registration at all. I can buy or sell a gun to another private citizen I don't have to tell anyone, as long as it's not an NFA item. I can even mill out my own un-serialized rifle that no-one knows about (talked about in a previous /. article on 3d printed guns)

Even the number of NFA classified items (machine-guns, suppressors, etc) are up.
http://www.businessinsider.com...

If only 1 in 5 of the NICS checks resulted in a sale, then gun sales from stores alone outpaced the us population increase.

The gun industry actually sailed through the recessions like they never happened, and gun-industry jobs grew like 30%. People will be retiring off the money they make selling ammo with crazy markups.

My state's concealed carry program has been off tha hook as the kids say.

Good thing Google's motto is "don't be evil".

Yeah, good thing for that...

Because in Egypt the military was using aircraft and snipers to shoot protesters. So it's common there now to "lase" aircraft to point them out to other people so they know to take cover.

http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeat...
http://static2.businessinsider...
http://s3files.core77.com/blog...
http://media3.s-nbcnews.com/j/...

Notice there are hundreds of lasers on these things... yet there's a a surprising lack of blind pilots or aircraft crashing into crowds.

Yes, it's technically possible this could hard the pilot. But practically? Not very likely. These pilots circled the crowds for hours every night for months with hundreds of lasers trained on them the entire time without incident.

Why does it have to be easy? If you made poor decisions in your life (no skills, children you can't afford, living in an area you can't afford) why is it my responsibility (or the government's responsibility, or a private company's responsibility) to provide for you?

You see, the question is not "easy" The question is possible.

When me, the taxpayer, subsidizes McDonald's workers, and McDonald's even gives them instructions on how to collect food stamps, then something is seriously fucked up, and make no mistake - the people who have to work for wages that simply will not allow them to provide for themselves without Guvmint assistance is not their fault now is it?

http://www.businessinsider.com...

Pretty damn sweet whn the 1 per centers can get the rest of us to pay for their minimum wage slave's food and other expenses.

This is a simple math problem, but spread out over a large population, so some times it gets hidden.

A person working a full time job should be able to provide for themselves. And they should be able to get married, and even have a child.

They should be able to save for retirement, they should not ever be eligible for government handouts. In general, they should be able to live modestly.

Everyone who has a job should be able to buy stuff, and help propel the economy, with being on the dole. And that's why it is an equation. And that is why we are so out of whack. There simply are not enough high paying jobs, and some folks will be working the low paying jobs either by lack of skill, ability, or even initiative. None of those are crimes. And if everyone gets the skills or initiative, we'll just have highly educated people working in minimum wage jobs - oh wait, we already do.

Then again, I could be wrong. It could be that minimum wage of any sort kills jobs, especially the jobs made by the job creators who used the tax breaks they got during Bush2 to propel the country to greater prosperity. Oh, wait - that didn't happen. Just what do we have to give to these precious snowflakes to get them to produce jobs?

Android is facing a new (or is in a continuation of a) lawsuit over Java patent violations.
Manufacturers have to pay Microsoft fees for violating their patents" and earns more from Android than Windows phones.
For most users on most handsets there isn't a supported upgrade path to newer versions of Android. They have to deal with bugs and security issues with their old version.
Depending on the study, between 85 and 99% of all mobile malware is targeted to Android. (Although most of that is outside of Google's own store)

I tell my friends, "buy one if you want to...but everything else is safer". iOS, Windows, Blackberry, Symbian (the least safe and least supported of these), Tizen, etc.

*** I do not have an iPhone or an Android phone. I have a "semi smart" feature phone. ***

Lower unemployment? Great idea. Except we can't do it.

We've been living on credit for so long, we're dependant on it. If our rate of borrowing slows down, people lose their jobs.

So if we want to lower unemployment we need to borrow more money? Great, except everyone's basically swamped with debt already.

Costco implement a decent wage structure and made more money, and has happy and competent employees.
Wal-Mart doesn't raise there wage becasue they are greedy. The greed permeates through the management structures and how cheap it makes everything.

There action are contrary to what they claim.

Wal-Mart said last week that it would halt plans to open stores in D.C. because of a minimum-wage hike that would mandate a minimum hourly pay of $12.50.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com...
.

You underestimate the malleability of technology in that it can be applied to any and every human problem imaginable. Automation is unstoppable unless its existence is forcibly restricted (a good or bad idea is for you to decide).

Either a company pays someone to flip burgers what they think flipping burgers is worth, or they make robots. Either a company pays someone at the register what they think cashiers are worth, or they automate. Do not assume that just because you and I would rather people do the jobs, that they can not be automated.

I would rather see a (hopefully smiling...) face when checking out of a grocery store or buying a burger at McDonalds than the terminal of a machine, but I somberly accept that there may come a time when that lifestyle disappears because, contrary to what you say, they will not go out of business if they stop paying someone to flip burgers or bag groceries.

Why not get some facts:

http://www.businessinsider.com...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...

The US already has a pretty high minimum wage. Germany and the Scandinavian countries don't have one at all.

Because wages are generally only a fraction of the cost of goods sold, raising wages doesn't result in anywhere near as much of an increase in prices. Raising Walmart's minimum by ~50% would result in 1.1% price increases.

My guess would be that a large chunk of the workforce having significantly more spending money would help most companies sell *more* product, even with a minor price increase. Why doesn't Walmart just up it's wages, if it's such an obviously good idea? It still has to compete with others who probably won't follow suit. The only way to ensure a level playing field is to set a general minimum wage that applies to everyone - and set it high enough that full-time employees can actually afford the goods and services needed to survive (and maybe even participate in the economy a bit beyond that). The Walmart CEO himself asked Congress to do this in 2006.

They have already duplicated every Google App, except Maps (no data) and of course search. ArsTechnica

Samsung is the only profitable Android phone maker. Business Insider

If they find a way to get good mapping data, they can drop Google. The real money is in ads (google is an ad company, over 90% of revenue), and Samsung would love to keep it.

This - so much this. For popular journeys, mass transit is going to be considerably more efficient.

But keep the bubblecars for trips to rural/remote locations, and the elderly and disabled who need door to door service.

Perhaps a shuttle-type tram/train with 'pod docks' would be the ideal combination, maximising takeup, reducing stop frequency and offering end-to-end service for those who needed it.

Something like this adopted for pod cars too.

Like we'll be able to afford popcorn when the only two suppliers of it are WalMart and Amazon.

Yes, you will. In fact, that's the whole point - people shop at Amazon and Wal-Mart because it saves them money. Both are known widely for leveraging their scale and supply chain efficiencies to sell goods for much lower costs than any competitors.

If you're trying to suggest that eventually Amazon and Wal-Mart will be the only two employers in the US, then that's a different argument. Wal-Mart is well-known for low wages, but Amazon's employees are typically paid in a range that is high vs. the US median, but low vs. other high tech companies. Living in Seattle, I know some of my Amazon employee friends seem underpaid at $100-$120K/year around here, but I doubt that figure would get them much sympathy in most of the country.

If Wal-Mart raised wages and benefits, that cost would translate directly to higher prices, shifting the burden of the subsidy from the top third to the bottom third, income-wise.

That cost would come out in the wash. You conservatives and libertarians love to claim any rise in the minimum wage will translate to an equivalent rise in prices - as if a 25% wage increase would mean a 25% increase in prices. Anyone with half a brain knows this is bullshit FUD, because wages are only a fraction of a product's price. Raising Walmart employees' wages to $12.50/hr would result in price increases of 1.1% (or $12 per year for the average shopper). I'm pretty damn sure the bottom third would love to trade 1.1% higher pieces for a >1.1% wage increase.

No, what's needed is an infinite supply of money, of course.

Infinite, no, but adequate. If we restored taxes on the wealthy to the rates they were in, say, the Eisenhower administration, that'd help a lot.

... this (mass surveillance) is just more part and parcel of state suppression of dissent against corporate interests. They're worried that the more people are going to wake up and corporate centers like the US and canada may be among those who also awaken. See this vid with Zbigniew Brzezinski, former United States National Security Advisor.

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

Look at the following graphs:

http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesa...
http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesa...
http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesa...

And then...

WIKILEAKS: U.S. Fought To Lower Minimum Wage In Haiti So Hanes And Levis Would Stay Cheap

http://www.businessinsider.com...

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

Free markets?

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

http://www.amazon.com/Empire-I...

"We now live in two Americas. One—now the minority—functions in a print-based, literate world that can cope with complexity and can separate illusion from truth. The other—the majority—is retreating from a reality-based world into one of false certainty and magic. To this majority—which crosses social class lines, though the poor are overwhelmingly affected—presidential debate and political rhetoric is pitched at a sixth-grade reading level. In this “other America,” serious film and theater, as well as newspapers and books, are being pushed to the margins of society.

In the tradition of Christopher Lasch’s The Culture of Narcissism and Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death, Pulitzer Prize-winner Chris Hedges navigates this culture—attending WWF contests, the Adult Video News Awards in Las Vegas, and Ivy League graduation ceremonies—to expose an age of terrifying decline and heightened self-delusion."

A good example is to look at who has all the patents for graphene research. It mostly ain't us.

http://www.businessinsider.com...

Quite a few smart people, including me, are profoundly disturbed by the safety problems with nuclear fuels and by their limited reserves. Refining U-235 is quite expensive to fuel grade is quite expensive, and quite toxic. Moreover, the current reserves will only supply about 200 years of energy _at current rates of consumption_. That's currently roughly 12% of world energy production, for roughly 6 billion people, with many in dire poverty and quite low energy consumption.

Yes, you fucking luddite retard, because U-235 is the only game in town, and we all know that rare earth metals are in infinite supply and there are no horrible byproducts of manufacturing solar cells.

YOU are the problem here.

We have a European-style public education system for K-12, and it delivers European-style mediocre results. ... http://www.businessinsider.com... [businessinsider.com]

If you look at that, you'll see that the US is close to OECD average of 500 on all scores. There simply are no big differences. If you look at TFA and read the report, furthermore, you'll see that on a state-by-state basis, individual US states rank from near the top to near the bottom, making the US as a whole as diverse as Europe as a whole.

Also, you're flat out wrong: much of Europe comes above the US.

When you're comparing rankings of countries that are so close to one another, the rankings become meaningless. Furthermore, statistically, it makes little sense to compare education statistics from a country like Norway to a country like the US.

Oh yeah, you're the chap who seems to come here to randomly hate on Europe for no discernable reasons

I don't give a sh*t about what Europeans do in Europe. But when people advocate European policies as solutions to supposed US problems, I object, because (1) European policies don't even work well in Europe, (2) the US and Europe have different values and many European policies simply are not acceptable in the US, and (3) even if European policies were acceptable and did work in Europe, the US is a very different society and they would likely not work in the US.

We have a European-style public education system for K-12, and it delivers European-style mediocre results.

http://www.businessinsider.com...

Oh yeah, you're the chap who seems to come here to randomly hate on Europe for no discernable reasons. By the way: simply hating on another country or region you have nothing to do with doesn't actually have any bearing on your own problems. If Europe is bad as you claim, then that neither excuses the US nor does it make it more acceptable.

Also, you're flat out wrong: much of Europe comes above the US.

Well, not to invalidate your point that Euro-bashing is not a useful endeavor, but the US as a whole shouldn't be compared to the best performing areas of Europe, just as Europe as a whole shouldn't be compared to the best-performing areas of the US. European education systems are not centralized, just as the education systems in the US are not. Each state is essentially responsible for the education of their own population, with some (seemingly token, in some cases) federal guidance and oversight.

This is why this particular study is interesting, because it compares the individual US states to the individual European (and worldwide) countries. These comparisons are useful.

However, the headline and summary are rather sensational. The "deep south" states referred to are the usual suspects: Louisiana, West Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi. These particular states have pervasive problems impacting educational performance. They are somewhat economically depressed in general, and put very little emphasis on education. They also suffer from dramatic residential and educational economic segregation. The very poor in these states essentially all have their own schools, with minimal funding, that are little more than K-12 daycare centers, while the rich (and/or middle class) have their own schools which perform significantly better. If you look at specific school districts in metropolitan areas, you will notice peculiar boundaries in some cases, akin to gerrymandering. Also, rural areas in these states often have terrible educational performance, correlating with the abject poverty common in large swaths of these states.

Swap Ghostery for Disconnect. The dev behind Ghostery sells metrics data to advertisers which helps them target their advertising. http://www.businessinsider.com/evidon-sells-ghostery-data-to-advertisers-2013-6

We have a European-style public education system for K-12, and it delivers European-style mediocre results.

http://www.businessinsider.com...

Oh yeah, you're the chap who seems to come here to randomly hate on Europe for no discernable reasons. By the way: simply hating on another country or region you have nothing to do with doesn't actually have any bearing on your own problems. If Europe is bad as you claim, then that neither excuses the US nor does it make it more acceptable.

Also, you're flat out wrong: much of Europe comes above the US.

Source

One major caveat. I think I mixed up the process COMPLETELY. I believe that's backwards. Ban people who have been shown to be incapable of owning firearms, not TEST.

Still, mainstream gun owners support proposed mainstream gun legislation. It's the far fringe whack jobs who are in opposition.

Obviously. This guy? Total moron. This one too.

Obviously. This guy? Total moron. This one too.

Isn't that exactly what people have been saying they've done and still get problems, such as this from a few days ago: http://www.businessinsider.com...

Or

http://apple.slashdot.org/stor...

These people usually have a Mac or another iOS device somewhere that successfully received the message and told the sender that it was delivered.

Ever been in iOS developer's office and a half dozen devices go "bing"? Someone sent a text message and *all* devices logged into that account received, respond to the sender and are notifying the user.

Isn't that exactly what people have been saying they've done and still get problems, such as this from a few days ago: http://www.businessinsider.com...

Or

http://apple.slashdot.org/stor...

No worries. The EPA has you covered:
http://www.businessinsider.com...

It looks like people are on to solving such issues: http://www.businessinsider.com/solar-roadways-profile-2014-5. Feel free to submit a story to Slashdot so we can read it during the weekend :)

Rapid Price Changes are part of a infantile system. As the system matures, and becomes wider spread, pricing will stabilize.

IF it matures
AND IF it becomes wide spread.

Although almost half (48%) of American adults now know what Bitcoin is, just 13% say they would choose to invest in it over gold, according to a new Harris Interactive poll on behalf of Yodlee, a financial software firm.

The poll was conducted in December 2013 among 2,039 adults ages 18 and older.

Support for the digital currency was strongest among younger respondents:

20% of 18-34 year-olds who know what Bitcoin is said they would choose to invest in Bitcoin over gold.
Thirty-nine percent were not in favor of any government being able to regulate Bitcoin, compared with 28% among 45-54 and 24% among 55-year-olds and older.

Other findings:

55% of Westerners said they'd heard of Bitcoin, but just 7% said they'd choose it over gold, the lowest in any region.

Only 35% of women across the country have heard of Bitcoin, compared with 63% of men. Only 10% of women said they'd choose Bitcoin over gold.

The Northeast is America's most pro-Bitcoin region, with 19% saying they'd choose the digital currency over gold. 51% said they'd heard of it.

13% Of Americans Would Choose Bitcoin Over Gold

The gender gap in the states --- more like a chasm, really --- is the one big surprise here. Not that it exists. But that it is so large.

Very deadly...

http://www.businessinsider.com...

The outfit named in this post is also funded by Pierre Omidyar, ebay banker and Glen Grewald fanboi.

Uber = car sharing as Micro finance = money sharing

Yay markets!

I am enjoying the fact that Slashot isn't even trying to hide it's silicon valley oligarch sponsorship anymore.

"This new America that was invented by Bush and refined by Obama is nothing short of terrifying."

They fear political awakening, while you may be reasonably comfortable. Many in the bottom billions of poor on planet earth are in abject poverty and oppression. Capitalism wants to keep those people in their place, hence the elites desire to control the internet.

People are waking up to the fact that the governments are all power hungry and corrupt and are not there to serve the interests of the people, but that of the global elite and the multi-billion dollar corporations.

WIKILEAKS: U.S. Fought To Lower Minimum Wage In Haiti So Hanes And Levis Would Stay Cheap

http://www.businessinsider.com...

This is just more part and parcel of state surpression of dissent against corporate interests. They're worried that the more people are going to wake up and corporate centers like the US and canada may be among those who also awaken. See this vid with Zbigniew Brzezinski, former United States National Security Advisor.

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

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

Free markets?

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

http://www.amazon.com/Empire-I...

"We now live in two Americas. One—now the minority—functions in a print-based, literate world that can cope with complexity and can separate illusion from truth. The other—the majority—is retreating from a reality-based world into one of false certainty and magic. To this majority—which crosses social class lines, though the poor are overwhelmingly affected—presidential debate and political rhetoric is pitched at a sixth-grade reading level. In this “other America,” serious film and theater, as well as newspapers and books, are being pushed to the margins of society.

In the tradition of Christopher Lasch’s The Culture of Narcissism and Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death, Pulitzer Prize-winner Chris Hedges navigates this culture—attending WWF contests, the Adult Video News Awards in Las Vegas, and Ivy League graduation ceremonies—to expose an age of terrifying decline and heightened self-delusion."

Apple is "getting its clock cleaned by Android"? Only if you've had your head stuffed down a rabbit hole for the last 5 years...

How like an apple toady to claim that black is white.

Reality..

So you spent a few minutes doing real research did you? Are you sure you know what that word means?

Just a suggestion: Consider replacing Ghostery with Disconnect. Ghostery embraces the Dark Side

... one issue based bullshit is not going to stop this. We had SOPA and CISPA and they are preparing CISPA round 3.

The internet is something 'everyone can agree on' but unfortunately most people trying to 'protect the internet' are too historically and politically illiterate to really do so. None of you who are hardcore capitalists are "protectors" of the internet, in fact why SOPA and TPP are trying to lock it down is BECAUSE they fear the masses rising up against corporate (capitalist) powers. That's why we got governments and corporations going gangusters on surveillance worldwide.

If you doubt this check the spyfiles

https://wikileaks.org/the-spyf...

Corporate power is global, and resistance to it cannot be restricted by national boundaries. Corporations have no regard for nation-states. They assert their power to exploit the land and the people everywhere. They play worker off of worker and nation off of nation. They control the political elites in Ottawa as they do in London, Paris and Washington.

Consider the G20 Protests in Toronto

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

This is just more part and parcel of state suppression of dissent against corporate interests. They're worried that the more people are going to wake up and corporate centers like the US and canada may be among those who also awaken. See this vid with Zbigniew Brzezinski, former United States National Security Advisor.

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

Look at the following graphs:

http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesa...
http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesa...
http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesa...

And then...

WIKILEAKS: U.S. Fought To Lower Minimum Wage In Haiti So Hanes And Levis Would Stay Cheap
http://www.businessinsider.com...

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

Free markets?

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

http://www.amazon.com/Empire-I...

"We now live in two Americas. One—now the minority—functions in a print-based, literate world that can cope with complexity and can separate illusion from truth. The other—the majority—is retreating from a reality-based world into one of false certainty and magic. To this majority—which crosses social class lines, though the poor are overwhelmingly affected—presidential debate and political rhetoric is pitched at a sixth-grade reading level. In this “other America,” serious film and theater, as well as newspapers and books, are being pushed to the margins of society.

In the tradition of Christopher Lasch’s The Culture of Narcissism and Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death, Pulitzer Prize-winner Chris Hedges navigates this culture—attending WWF contests, the Adult Video News Awards in Las Vegas, and Ivy League graduation ceremonies—to expose an age of terrifying decline and heightened self-delusion."

Indeed. In this article (talking about the same interview), there was this interesting quote:

Some Congressmen had a looser grasp on the specifics of the issue, but had no problem making their discomfort known.

Take Massachusetts' *Stephen Lynch for instance.

"Virtual financial said in 5 years they had one day of trading losses," Lynch said incredulously, "...there seems to be a definite advantage for a firm that can operate for 5 years without any trading losses."

He meant Virtu, the high-frequency trading firm that has delayed its IPO indefinitely because of the fallout from Lewis' book.

I'm sure there is a statistician out there who could tell us the odds of running 5 years of trading with only one day of losses, in a system which was not rigged.

SEC Chair Mary Jo White is full of shit, and quite the opposite of reassuring us all that the markets are indeed not rigged, it just verifies that the SEC is complicit in this whole system.

They say the jamming 'could and may have had disastrous consequences by precluding the use of cell phones to reach life-saving 9-1-1 services provided by police, ambulance, and fire departments.'"

When people yapping on their cell are a bigger threat than drunk drivers it is great to see them wasting our tax dollars going after a guy who was stopping them.

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/20...

http://www.nsc.org/safety_road...

http://www.businessinsider.com...

http://www.caranddriver.com/fe...

I can add as many other citations as you'd like.

"... Eric Schmidt, an experienced industry professional..."

Eric Schmidt was the CEO of Novell, a VERY badly managed company. He was experienced in knowing little about what he was doing.

The entire Business Insider article is, in my opinion, obviously written by someone with little or no understanding of technology, a writer who doesn't have much depth of understanding about what really happened.

"FTFY. If you're making this about (R) vs (D), you're part of the problem."

If you're making this about your libertarian or other capitalist fantasies you are part of the problem.

War is a racket

http://www.amazon.com/War-Rack...

WIKILEAKS: U.S. Fought To Lower Minimum Wage In Haiti So Hanes And Levis Would Stay Cheap

http://www.businessinsider.com...

On elites

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

Free markets?

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

http://www.amazon.com/Empire-I...

"We now live in two Americas. One—now the minority—functions in a print-based, literate world that can cope with complexity and can separate illusion from truth. The other—the majority—is retreating from a reality-based world into one of false certainty and magic. To this majority—which crosses social class lines, though the poor are overwhelmingly affected—presidential debate and political rhetoric is pitched at a sixth-grade reading level. In this “other America,” serious film and theater, as well as newspapers and books, are being pushed to the margins of society."

Here's the original.

Besides all the fallacy-ridden trash Slate publishes, it's started spamming my Facebook-unique email address recently (I once clicked 'like' on an article there, apparently, before I knew to block all those trackers) so I try to avoid it now. Wasn't paying attention to the hover, so Slashdot got me. :/

http://www.businessinsider.com...

Here's a question though: Who would you say is disadvantaged?

I ask because Princeton did a study and found that if they ended Affirmative Action, the number of black and latino students would drop significantly while the white students wouldn't materially increase. They did however estimate that four out of every five black and latino students would be replaced with an Asian student.

Aren't Asian's supposed to be among those disadvantaged? Because presently Affirmative Action seems to disadvantage them even further.

Asians are not among the disadvantaged. They have a higher median income than whites and that has been true since at least the 80's. Even if affirmative action controlled for the tendency of Asians to apply more to colleges, properly functioning affirmative action would still disadvantage Asians.

To dumb to google? USA! Number 24!

First, the majority of people do not possess the ability to think critically.

IMHO, if they have a brain, they have the ability. Not thinking critically is not the same as not having the ability to think critically.

Second, why is everything the education systems fault? Why don't parents encourage their children to think critically?

Why? You just said most people don't have the ability. Encouragement from parents wouldn't change that (and would actually be a waste of the parent's time), unless the ability actually was there.

Instead of attracting the best talent we have states actively eroding teacher benefits which drives the talent away and opens the door for Teach for America type excuses for real teachers.

Just think (well, if you have the ability to) how much worse it must be in those countries which aren't spending as much on education per student as the US does - like Finland, Sweden, Japan, and Germany. They must be absolutely benighted places.

...US tech firms blame Snowden for failing confidence in the safety of using US tech companies: The 'Snowden Effect' Is Crushing US Tech Firms In China

Pot, meet Kettle.

Sercomm is a Taiwanese company.

Foot, meet mouth

...US tech firms blame Snowden for failing confidence in the safety of using US tech companies: The 'Snowden Effect' Is Crushing US Tech Firms In China

Pot, meet Kettle.