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I went to Jamaica in 2001, and all those poor, poor Jamaicans running the tourist nick nack stalls had cell phones.

But did they have refrigerators?

Back in the 80s and 90s, there was sort of a stigma to having a cell phone in America--namely only rich/important people had cell phones because wired phones in the home were relatively inexpensive. We spent a ton of money wiring America back in the 1930s and 1940s because that was the only way to do it back then. So people had telephones in their houses because the government essentially subsidized the expense of a phone.

Compared with the expense of running wires all over the place, cell towers are a heck of a lot cheaper. Build a tower over here, serve 1000 people. No need to run 1000 wires. Which is why they became popular in countries which didn't have the infrastructure to begin with.

If only there was some entity more powerful than Uber we could appeal to... one we had some say in how it was applying its power. Possibly, that entity could come up with some kinda regulations for services that give people rides, to ensure public safety.

The whole situation will likely be used by both political sides for their own petty interests and not focus on the woman's situation.

Called it, didn't I? Honestly, we already have regulation and outright laws against rape, and yet rape still happens. Clearly the issue isn't per se that we lack regulations or laws. It's that companies choose to ignore them, follow them in some literal interpretation that allows them to technically follow them while violating their spirit, or to often be the ones who write the laws and have them written more to keep outsiders out--the whole situation with Uber is like this with extant taxi services.

Meanwhile, the fact that there are rapist taxi drivers that aren't Uber drivers zooms right by. Right, it was the lack of regulation or that it wasn't being followed well enough! It couldn't just be that would be rapists exist that finally rape for which no amount of pre-cognition is going to save you. There was an interesting bit, in fact, recently about how much police are so heavy on preventive crime that they often lose focus on extant cases (because detective work is boring, dirty, gritty stuff and Minority Report stuff is cool--and it sells better to the public) which makes me wonder just how much the current situation with the crime rate being down has to do with the police underreporting stuff or otherwise being unresponsive resulting in a public just not turning to the police at all.

In any case, the major points to bring home are (1) rape happens and spinning it to be an Uber/regulation/whatever thing is bullshit and (2) it's the companies themselves through their owners/leadership that have to change to see companies that focus on doing good (which honestly, is only tangently related to this case at best) and not some belief you can bribe or beat or regulate/deregulate your way towards people doing good things. A carrot and stick are there merely to limit the negative extremes and motivate some positives but even extreme micromanagement--which few people want--would be enough to make Uber or any company a positive-focused company. And that's, more or less, the real overreaching problem that lawsuits, like this, don't address.

While true, being a news source is not the primary function of The Daily Show. For what they do cover, like in the linked video above, they have stated multiple times that they try to not have any errors, not misrepresent anything, and have people genuinely respond to questions using their own words. It is not difficult to believe that either, since if even one thing wrong or someone feels they were misrepresented on the show, it ends up addressed on the show like in this piece: http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/xn508x/a-single-factual-error

I am not sure of the difference between the two programmes, but what failed in Dallas 10 years ago seems to be working in Salt Lake City now: http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/lntv3q/the-homeless-homed

Yeah, it is not the best source for news, but it is the only way I heard about it.

The average person should be more worried about their sexual partner(s) going through their SMS history than the NSA doing the same. I know it's a shock to the ego but very few of us are interesting enough to be on the radar of any intelligence agency. The lion's share of the population is fat and unimportant.

It's the sort of parochialism you see in backwaters everywhere. And yes, I'm including the USA in that "backwaters everywhere"...

You lie! America is awesome!!11

> How can you be a chronic offender and NOT have a record?

It is people the police find offensive. Like those football players in st louis that the police got all butthurt about.

Midwest Midterm Midtacular - E-Voting Pt. 1 and Midwest Midterm Midtacular - E-Voting Pt. 2 These are from 2006, can't believe we are still talking abou this. Paper Ballots Now!

Midwest Midterm Midtacular - E-Voting Pt. 1 and Midwest Midterm Midtacular - E-Voting Pt. 2 These are from 2006, can't believe we are still talking abou this. Paper Ballots Now!

John Oliver had a hilarious and very sad skit where he talked about this. The Daily Show also had a routine. It's just sad.

In many municipalities, the government starts a suit against the property itself so that it's much easier to keep all the loot.

In fairness, I saw Terry Tao get half-way through saying that 27 and 29 are twin primes on the Colbert Report the other day, before he caught himself. (Just after the 3 minute mark).

They opposed it because they oppose everything that Obama does.
Whatever he does, they support the opposite. No one cared about Common Core originally, and it was implemented in 43 states. But as soon as Obama said it was a good idea, everyone on the started freaking out and saying it was the worst EVAH.
When he suggested bombing Syria they said no way.
When he was reluctant to bomb Russia/Ukraine they said we needed to.
If he said cyanide was toxic they would stand on the Capitol Steps and chug it just to spite him.
If he cured cancer they'd complain he was putting doctors out of work.

Yes, and here's a video reference of exactly this happening: http://www.cc.com/video-clips/...

"[O]fficials are up against the inherently emotional and instinctive nature of risk-perception psychology .. People worry more about risks that are new and unfamiliar."

The solution is to gather up all those talking-heads at Faux News (including the one with the plastic hair) and lock them up in Guantamino ref.

The failures of this hospital in dealing with a novel and gravely serious situation are in no way indicative of remarkably incompetent individuals or sub-standard hospital policies.

Even the most complete training cannot provide experience. Day to day work in a hospital is boring and routine, and when faced with the unknown people are going to fall back on that routine, not what they were trained to do briefly and long ago. Nurses who haven't dealt much with explosive diarrhea or projectile vomiting won't have practice being meticulous about preventing splatter on every part of their skin or porous clothing. Simply telling someone to be careful and then sending them off unsupervised and unaided isn't terribly effective.

Hospitals cannot afford to maintain a full wardrobe of gear to deal with even one Ebola patient throughout the course of treatment, nor are they set up to dispose of that gear at the rate it piles up after use. Adequate supplies will need to be provided on a reactive (not proactive) basis. Protocols, however, simply assume that the gear is there and ready to be used by people well versed in their use. It doesn't do any good to have well thought out procedures in place if it isn't possible or practical to implement them.

People who blame the nurses, or the hospital, or the patient are holding them up to an unreasonable standard. These people are not special. They're not clowns and they're not villains. They're just normal folk reacting the way normal folk will, and neither the CDC nor anyone else has some magic wand to wave to prevent this exact same scenario from playing out the next time. It's unfortunate, but it is manageable and we should focus on making sure the right lessons are learned from it.

Some interesting viewing, somewhat related: http://www.ted.com/talks/atul_... http://thedailyshow.cc.com/vid...

http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/videos/z1aahs/the-word---wikiality

What we need are more *spokespersons* for science. More Neil deGrasse Tysons. People who BOTH understand the science AND have the skill to teach it to laypeople. Hell, IMO general media should be banned outright from discussing scientific topics, since they don't seem to be able to do anything BUT screw it up.

Most of this Daily Show clip shows what happens when a spokesperson confronts the government part of science. They blankly refuse to believe in Science...

Why do you think one of the fastest ways to become a millionaire in the US is to be elected to Congress or the Senate?

This comment pre-dated an extremely relevant example by a week, one I felt necessary to mention before the comments go into archive: Former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has been hired by "small independent investment bank" Moelis & Co. "Moelis & Co.’s new vice-chairman and managing director will get a $3.4 million pay package between September and the end of 2015."

Dude lost the primary because he was too focused on federal matters (and that whole immigration thing...) and, as punishment, he gets a job where he will likely do jack all (to my knowledge he has no experience in investment banking)--except, perhaps, talking to the current crop of Congresscritters about how to best pass laws that help banks--for the tidy sum of $3.4 MILLION for just a bit over a year's work. Jon Stewart does a nice rip of him over this.

Russia Today? Really, that's your objective "alternative" source?

The reporters at RT are fleeing in droves to either avoid prosecution from the government or just because they actually want to be reporters and not Kremlin shills.

http://thedailyshow.cc.com/gue...

Its a reference to a south park episode. http://southpark.cc.com/full-e...

I thought there already was a definitive diagnostic test. See here or here (for those who like me are not in the US or a country where you can access the videos, you will need a browser plugin to view them, e.g. I have Media Hint - sorry for the inconvenience).

I thought there already was a definitive diagnostic test. See here or here (for those who like me are not in the US or a country where you can access the videos, you will need a browser plugin to view them, e.g. I have Media Hint - sorry for the inconvenience).

Banning images isn't the problem. Why do you think /. has a lame-ass "lameness" filter? Because people were posting ASCII porn.

i.e.
8====> or whatever the penis bird crap was back then.

As another user pointed out, the ability to FILTER and MODERATE allows the community to self-police itself. You can post offensive stuff _solely_ with text using words. The "classics" are the N, C, or F words. i.e. http://southpark.cc.com/clips/...

Sites that only allow upvotes are retarded as they don't give people the option to filter out the "noise".

A _good_ site allows people to upvote the signal and downvote the noise

http://southpark.cc.com/full-e...

Indeed, I think the OP is suffering from miracle of flight syndrome.

They'd make quite a team, and the debates might finally be watchable.

Yeah, then add the matching pair Paul/Cruz on the other side, and the debates will be as good as this one.

Some, arguably the smarter ones, pray for guidance, then see a doctor and take medical treatment, then thank god for guiding them to what they could have figured out themselves. But, they are happy.

Others pray only for a miracle, knowing that miracles are rare, and die knowing that either that was God's purpose or they just didn't deserve the miracle enough. But, they are happy.

Then there's those who really don't get that "God works in mysterious ways" might mean that God wants them to assign perfectly normal human interventions (like medical treatment) to being his work (and why not?, builds faith, saves work, lets him do more of whatever gods do when not babysitting their createes). Such people rarely go happy, as with the old flood joke: http://jokes.cc.com/funny-god-...

Whether in make-believe settings, or the distorted scene-setting of media coverage, robots are strong, because anything less would be a buzzkill.

Speaking of buzzkills, could a robot driver deploy a sawstop-style mechanism, possibly dropping an anchor of sorts into the road surface, when presented with an imminent otherwise-unpreventable collision?

This assumes airbags can be designed to sufficiently mitigate the g-forces on the occupants to prevent internal 'shaken-baby-syndrome'-style brain injuries.

Most recently, check out the May 15 Colbert Report. He skewers the concept of military morality pretty well.

The individual video segment is available to watch directly -- it's relevant, funny, and even oddly poignant.

Needs fewer hops, or denser connectivity. ;)

Does he really think curtailing guns will stop mass killings?

It has worked before. Australia & Gun Control's Aftermath

Robert Wexler (Florida Representative) on Colbert's 'Better Know A District" - "I enjoy cocaine because its a fun thing to do" (start from 4:05).

Small World Phenomena

Or, the Erdos Number.
Now, let's say your kebab dealer tweets about a limed time deal on select types of kebabs to spread awareness on twitter using a local city hashtag. Everyone who searches the city's hashtag around the time it was posted has received a communication from a possible terrorist. Furthermore everyone working at Twitter now can be suspected.

If that wasn't bad enough, let's say the "orthodox Muslim" brother who is suspected of terrorist acts performs one thus: He tweets with the city hashtag and @replies his brother at once, "That price is Criminal! Your Kebabs Are The Bomb!". Now we've jumped a level on the connectivity graph. Everyone who has viewed the city hashtag with the kebab deal testimonial is now only one step removed from the suspected terrorist. Apply the generalized Erdos Number method, as with Degrees of Bacon, one can see how an entire city is search-able, if not a significant part of the planet itself as those "terrorists communicators" tweet, blog, and post on nerd news sites about unrelated things.

Also relevant: #CancelCorbert - An example of why believing something taken out of context can be very stupid, and indeed have ridiculous results.
To demonstrate how malleable human language is, and why the NSA should not use language itself as an indicator for suspicion: You wrote, "blood is thicker than water", which could be short for "The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb." this traditional meaning would be the exact opposite of what you probably intended. There is another Arabic version with milk brothers vs blood brothers, where blood brothers are thicker than suckling brothers and both are thicker than water. So, I can interpret your statement to mean both: the NSA thought brotherhood as a bond to be strong, or the NSA is wrong to think involuntary bonds are strong.

One wonders if one's deep knowledge of alleged terrorist cellular activity do not belie one's secret connection to said cells in the minds of the paranoid and delusional NSA goon?

I saw on CNN that a black hole may have swallowed up flight 370 --about 2 minutes in. So the physicists may be luck.

CORPORATE RADIO SUCKS, try some alternatives sometime. You might be pleasantly surprised.

... That market has it's own monopoly... There is even a community site or two about that...

So it doesn't matter that an elected representative, most of whose constituents are either employed by, or run, an entertainment company might have an opinion? I'll grant you that what amounts to a trade-union of interested companies providing the "Vote for Me" cash for advertisements smells to high-heaven of "buy-out", but what does the Screen Actors' Guild think? That group, and it's contituent members, might have opinions that disagree with ours. If, after all, the *AA is correct, and p2p makes problems making money for an individual record label, won't the individual artists feel it too?

By the way. I didn't see any notice of the Screen Actors' Guild's position on this topic. They and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists have already been thrilled that the Senate as told the FCC to submit a review of media consolidation, the likes of which goes to Clear Channel.

(As an aside, I recommend browsing Aerosmith's
website for their thoughts on their record contract.)