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Presumable he is referring to this:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/th...

One of the ACA architects has stated that:

A) the bill was written in such a way so that the CBO did not interpret the fine's as Taxes.

b) said : “In terms of risk-rated subsidies, if you had a law which said that healthy people are going to pay in—you made explicit that healthy people pay in and sick people get money, it would not have passed, okay. Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage. And basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really, really critical for the thing to passLook, I wish Mark was right that we could make it all transparent, but I’d rather have this law than not.”

this was in the news recently.

Didn't Blackberry give back door access to their phones to the governments of India, China and pretty much anyone else who asked?

Some simple fact checking would show this is false, yet it continues to persevere through the grossly uninformed.

Actually , it's true. India

The company has provided a solution that allows the government special access to Blackberry’s communication services, including BlackBerry Messenger and BlackBerry Internet Service email. As a result, the Indian government can now monitor the exchange of emails and email attachments on BlackBerry devices, as well as whether messages on Blackberry Messenger have been marked ‘delivered’ or ‘read.’

Saudi Arabia

Research in Motion has reportedly averted a ban on its BlackBerry communications services in Saudi Arabia in exchange for security concessions to the government.

Waterloo-based RIM has agreed to hand over user codes that would let Saudi authorities monitor its BlackBerry Messenger, a source close to the talks told Reuters News Agency on Tuesday.

The source said RIM would share with Saudi Arabia the unique pin number and code for each BlackBerry registered there. That will allow authorities to read encrypted text sent via Messenger, an instant messaging service that’s distinct from email sent on the BlackBerry that is so popular with its prized corporate and political customers.

Russia, China

On November, 2007, in order to sell its devices inside Russia, RIM provided its encryption keys to Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) which, in turn, provided access to the Federal Security Service (FSB). The official Russian law which mandates this supervision is Order 6 from 16.01.2008 "About the statement of Requirements for telecommunication networks for operational and search activities."

In January, 2008, RIM China announced that BlackBerry sales through China Mobile were on track although 2007 was the expected start date. The delay was due to the fact that "RIM needed to satisfy Beijing that its handsets posed no security threat to China’s communication networks, according to sector analysts." There’s only one way to satisfy the Chinese government regarding "security threats" and that’s to comply with Chinese law regarding supervision and monitoring.

You can find more if you look.

You know, that one that's more secure than the Android phone that runs apps on an Android based OS.

And yet, Blackberry has only been losing marketshare in the security arena, with even its own Canadian government leading the charge against Blackberry's security claims.

They are calling to task the "Most transparent US administration in history", which is threatening to veto this bill because "the Environmental Protection Agency should, in some case, be able to write regulations based on science and data that is not made available to the public." There's some transparency for you.

Of course propaganda from the left-wing Salon (and the only references in the article are to the even-more-left-wing ThinkProgress site) gets this bill completely wrong. Maybe try reading it?

The whole "controversy" is over some pure conflict of interest language. Exact terms: "Board members may not participate in advisory activities that involve review or application of their own work." Any of the nine board members can provide scientific data from any scientist with defense of that data; however a specific board member cannot self promote his own work. This is language found in nearly every piece of legislation that charters and administrative board. It's the same deal as requiring a judge to recuse himself it he has a personal interest in the judgment.

Anything that curtails the power of the tyrannical EPA is a good thing in my book - they have become way too powerful. If they don't have authority to regulate something, they just call up one of the many NGOs (that they provide grant money to), and tell them "Hey, you should sue us over this so we can stop it or at least tie it up in court until they run out of money or give up." If it doesn't work, at least those colluding organizations can get some settlement money out of it. That's the current SOP for the EPA, and it's undemocratic and should be illegal.

How can Facebook get personal information that you don't voluntarily share with it?

Offline data collection:

• Datalogix
• Data brokers
• Outside data sources

Tracking your browsing:

• WSJ article

Getting tentacles in your OS:

• iOS
• More on Apple

Running analytics software and servers for other websites and apps:

• Parse

Etc.

Crops, fisheries, radioactive contamination, the whole system would lead to massive collapse after a decade. Sure, hardly anyone would die from the immediate impact of the annual nuclear meltdown, but once we start ticking off the body count of the millions dying to radiation poisoning and starvation, we might want to reconsider that path.

1. The total death impact from Chernobyl is roughly 4k people. There's some high end estimates like 985k, but those seem to assume that humans are snorting all the radioactive material.
2. The exclusion zone is 1k km, 1 a year would add up to 1M 'off limits', most of it indistinguishable from a natural park. About 2% of our land mass, assuming we don't smarten up and keep plants on previously 'disallowed' areas.
3. 1 Chernobyl/year is an absolute worst case scenario. Even if we multiplied our nuclear power 100 fold we wouldn't have that disaster rate, especially as we transition past the legacy plants the US uses now.
4. Estimates range from 4k to 93k deaths from the accident and resulting radiation. Meanwhile the death toll from coal in the USA alone is 10k..., and 170k world wide.

Citation: "How Deadly Is Your Kilowatt? We Rank The Killer Energy Sources" http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2012/06/10/energys-deathprint-a-price-always-paid/

Not a good start thus far, CSP is looking like a loser.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ja...

Since ethanol is really lousy when it comes to fuel mileage

http://www.roadandtrack.com/rt...

And Ethanol is causing farmers to switch to corn growth

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ja...

Please - Keep supporting ethanol. I love paying higher prices in the grocery stores, polluting more, and supporting the people in charge fighting for it!

Brought to you by the Amalgamated Association of morons

http://www.threestooges.net/al...

Not to burst your bubble ... O what the hell.

Peer-Reviewed Survey Finds Majority Of Scientists Skeptical Of Global Warming Crisis

Report: 1350+ Peer-Reviewed Papers Supporting Skeptic Arguments Against Man-Made Global Warming Alarm

No reason to mention the pro-AGW impending doom papers, no one doubts their existence.

My thoughts -- Yes, some GW is related to CO2, at least some fraction of the additional CO2 is due to man's activity, in particular burning of carbon fuels. It may even be a serious problem. BTW, what is the optimal level of CO2 anyway, be sure to show your work.

... I'm all for nuclear ...

The best non-nuclear solution would be fuel cells. Putting these in every sub-station requires a massive re-building of infra-structure. Some of that defense and war-on-terror funding would do and actually achieve the goal of hardening the electricity grid plus provide jobs in every electorate.

... assuming we also do CO2 sequestration ...

We could also pollute the air with sulphur: What the EPAs of the world were designed to prevent because of global cooling and acid rain. But this can be a short-term thing: about 20 years.

I like having synced bookmarks, history etc across all my devices and I don't care about google harvesting my data. (I don't think I have ever clicked an internet ad on purpose)

2000 is calling and it wants its data-harvesting naivete back.
We are long, long past the point where "targeted advertising" means showing you obvious ads.
It means things like price discrimination and reduced credit scores. And that stuff is just the tip of the iceberg, the more the Big Data analytics companies know about you the more they will be able to manipulate you and control your life all for their benefit, not yours.

At 17 years of age, you do not have enough life experience to say anything of real importance about anything involving the greater issues facing society.

How perfectly appropriate that these choice lines should be posted by to Slashdot by an Anonymous Coward.

The timing couldn't be bettered as well.

We should certainly laud Mattel for deciding that 2014 is the year Barbie strikes out on her own as a career woman after 55 years and 150-plus jobs (including hating math and babysitting, with a welcome stint as a computer engineer in 2010).

But Entrepreneur Barbie reminds us that --- like every other ostensibly inspiring incarnation of the doll --- her main role is to look pretty and wear lots of pink.

In the end, both [Supermodel Barbie and Entrepreneur Barbie] are part of the same old problem. As 16-year-old feminist and former TED speaker Adora Svitak told Forbes' Denise Restauri this week:

''She encourages an unrealistic expectation of beauty grounded in narrow ideals --- whiteness, thinness, a lack of hair and an abundance of breast tissue --- instead of kindness, smarts, self-confidence, or athleticism.''

Mattel's Latest Affront To Little Girls: Entrepreneur Barbie [Feb 2014]

I have nothing against padded bras in general. But my immediate thought in the store was, Why the hell does a teenage girl need one?

The issue of the over-sexualizing of girls from an early age has come to the forefront with a recent news story about model Thylane Lena-Rose Blondeau posing suggestively for the cover of Vogue magazine. Over a series of photos, the ten-year-old is shown sprawled on leopard-print cushions, wearing a skimpy gold dress, stiletto heels, and posing heavily made-up, with rouge and lipstick. She's ten years old, yet she looks scarily adult in the photos.

By creating so many illusory images of physical perfection, whether on store aisles or storefront ads, magazine covers or TV shows, we speak more to the profit margins of companies than the self-esteem of today's girls. The unsaid message of that endless rack of juniors' pushup bras? No matter what size you are, it still isn't good enough.

Would You Buy This for Your Daughter? [Aug 2011]

In Seattle the average work day for a man is also 13% longer, much fewer men take maternity leave and many more men actually do work long hours at the day's end.

A woman with the same dedication to work as a man in the same exact position with the same experience will make same or more money, since apparently women have more education then men do.

Yahoo! CEOs:
Scott Thompson

Compensation for 2012
Salary $377,240
Bonus $1,500,000
Restricted stock awards $14,047,995
All other compensation $21,164
Option awards $8,333,084
Total Compensation $24,279,483
Stock Ownership for 2012
Number of shares owned 757,788

Marissa Mayers

Mayer's pay from Yahoo has totaled an estimated $214 million.

As a result of the rise in the stock price, Equilar calculates, Ms. Mayerâ(TM)s $56 million package had grown to be worth about $186 million as of the end of last year, after Ms. Mayer forfeited some of the stock for failure to meet some performance requirements. In addition, Ms. Mayer was awarded $12.47 million worth of restricted stock in early 2013 that had grown to $23.7 million by year-end. Add in $4.3 million in cash paid to Ms. Mayer, and the figure rises to about $214 million for 15 months of work.

Barbie is in decline world-wide.

For nearly 70 years, Barbie has ruled the dollhouse. But Mattel’s star may now be a relic of the past. Mattel shares sank slightly on Thursday morning after the company announced a net loss of $11.2 million and shrinking sales – $946 million, down 5% compared last year. The company’s biggest problem was its declining Barbie sales. Worldwide gross sales for the brand were down 14%.

... and ...

The sharp decline was especially disappointing as Barbie is still Mattel’s biggest single brand, generating $1.15 billion in 2013 sales, according to Needham & Co. analyst Sean McGowan.

Barbie’s North American sales have now fallen for eight straight quarters, and worldwide sales have dropped in eight of the past 10 quarters, according to McGowan.

Barbie’s popularity slide has come at a time of shifting demographics.

"Barbie is sort of stuck with its own fame as a blond girl, which just doesn’t resonate with girls anymore," said Matthew Hudak, an analyst in toys and games at research firm Euromonitor.

Mattel has tried to address the issue with Barbies from different ethnic backgrounds, but it’s difficult to change consumer perception of the doll, he said.

"Barbie is just going to continue to be hard to relate to. It doesn’t look like it’s in for a fun ride the next few years," Hudak said.

Barbie also has been hurt by the marketing to girls of toys that were once geared only toward boys, such as Hasbro’s Nerf Rebelle, a feminine spin on the classic Nerf foam-dart shooter.

"Maybe Mattel should be more conscious of gender neutrality?" said Jamie Gutfreund, chief marketing officer at Noise and The Intelligence Group, adding the majority of young parents it surveyed are okay with boys playing with dolls.

While over a billion in sales is nothing to sneeze at, the fact that it's declining despite attempts to enlarge and diversify the market is significant. Mattel is now marketling Barbies to the parents, not the kids - kids just aren't asking for them any more. They want an iPod, an iPad, a Nerf gun, a Smartphone ...

Token budgets? I guess if you call multiples more spent pushing an AGW perspective relative to skepticism (the foundation of science) as "token", then you have a point...

...at least in Scandinavia.

And not only in northern Europe. In Spain the grid connected rooftop solar power price parity was just reached this past year and without subsidizing. Even if here the sales tax is lower than in Scandinavia still is a hefty 21%, but also the yearly solar irradiance is almost two folds up to 5.3KWh/m^2.

But you know what? The government quickly invented a new tax. A tax for all grid connected home solar power. A tax that makes you pay for the electricity that you produce and consume yourself. Effectively taxing the Sun.

Brilliant.

"Lawful intercept" has entered the business models of Verisign and CISCO. I would not trust CISCO... http://www.forbes.com/2010/02/...

Not even an inch... http://arstechnica.com/tech-po...

Proper security on a network is properly done at the endpoints. Its doesn't belong anywhere else.

What is Mozilla thinking?? They could help fund Convergence.io. They could implement clever ways to get it to ride on existing social networks. They could look at network privacy layers that use public keys as addresses. There are options for improving privacy that don't involve elevating the PKi clusterf*ck any further.

One incident did define GG. When they where shown to be the vile people they are, the narrative changed. Then people who didn't know the origin got fooled into thinking it was about journalism; which it is not about.

Oh, come on now. I hope for your sake you realize this isn't what actually happened, but rather that GG was actually a hydra with several heads and what you chose to ignore (not focus on) said something about your down bias.

For people who don't know the actual origin, here is the original post that kicked things off about Zoe Quinn. It's rough reading, as you come to realize how emotionally abusive & hypocritical a fixture in the social equality movement is. This is the exact same if a pastor was leading the charge in getting people fired and ostracized for going against his moral code, all the while not following it himself. Blindly defending zoe quinn because she is being harrassed by the whole internet isn't equality, it's sacrificing your ideals at the altar of tribalism:

http://thezoepost.wordpress.co...

Discussion then got hammered and censored, which caused things to mutate and well, turn into a hydra. It was calculated, with false DMCA notices, etc. Forbes has a really good writeup on it:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/er...

The guy at the source has a pretty matter-of-fact tumblr I check in on now and again (mostly because I'm curious about the appeal of the lawsuit zoe quinn has filed and initially won saying he isn't allowed to talk about her to anyone which has serious 1st amendment implications).

http://antinegationism.tumblr....

According to CNN and Forbes North Carolina is the only state without civil forfeiture where the actual property owner must be convicted of a crime before the property can be seized.
Unfortunately as the Forbes article points out local law enforcement often gets a federal agent involved so they can use federal overreach to usurp the state's rights so ultimately it doesn't matter what the state law is.

Well, of the 4 people I know with student debt, two are well over $100k. But mostly from the "screaming headlines." http://www.forbes.com/sites/sp... Of course if averages is $40k and many only owe $25k, that means there are some on the other side too...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/er...

this is so appropriate.....

Freedom of speech does not include doxxing.
Freedom of speech does not include making threats to shoot up a school

Sorry your feels are rustled because god forbid you might be forced to encouter games featuring women who are wearing more than chain-mail bikinis, but your use of the "free speech" card is absurdly disportionate to the real world harassment that YOUR PEOPLE are engaging in.

The 'Wall Street Journal' Parade of Climate Lies

Wall Street Journal: neutrinos show climate change isn't real! XD

And from the pot herself: remarkable editorial bias on climate science at the wall street journal

and violent acts either. It really shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that the rise in violence had a very well explained physical cause

http://www.forbes.com/sites/al...

What kills me, is that more hasn't been done to stop these legal/political shakedowns of particular industries. The formula should be known to everyone by now,
1. Find Deep Pocket
2. Blame problem on their activities
3. Agitate in the media until they make token gestures (Wow all cartons have to have morals) and pay off the people shaking them down.

Mail your representatives to build modern nuclear reactors. Nuclear has come a long way. Passively safe designs have been around for a while. With a combination of breeder reactors, waste transmutation, and glassification, waste is a non-issue. And let's not forget that nuclear has the lowest number of deaths per Terawatt-hour of energy produced--lower even than wind/solar/hydro**

**Sources:
http://webcache.googleusercont...
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ja...

"Tesla Q3 Earnings Live: Shares Rise, Strong Outlook for '15 Even While Model X Faces More Delays"
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ma...

Tesla reported a tiny third-quarter profit of $3 million using its preferred numbers while delivering a record 7,785 Model S sedans. That resulted in a $932 million quarter, up 55% from a year ago. But results were challenged by a month-long shutdown of the company's lone production facility as it tools up for the Model X crossover SUV it is introducing next year, albeit later than planned. Gross margin also took a small hit due to changes in warranty accounting, coming in at 23%. The sum total is that Tesla lowered its outlook for 2014 production to 33,000 total deliveries, from 35,000 citing the production deficit. Investors so far have shrugged off the news, sending the stock higher after hours.

Wall Street was looking for lower revenues and a small loss. But the numbers were buoyed by very strong sales of Zero Emission Vehicle credits, which totaled a "much higher than expected" $76 million, Tesla said.

"Tesla Shows Signs It's Struggling With Manufacturing"
http://www.forbes.com/sites/mi...

Tesla Motors TSLA +5.8% reported its third quarter results Wednesday. While analysts' attention was riveted to its financials, manufacturing experts saw two signs that the company is struggling.

First, Tesla lowered its 2014 production target to 33,000 vehicles, down from its goal of 35,000. Second, Tesla pushed back the delivery date for its upcoming Model X once more, to the third quarter of 2015. ...
The announcement validates the prediction made last month by Morgan Stanley MS +0.09% analyst Adam Jonas.

One has a "hey, no biggie" tone while the other uses weasel words and literal red herrings to push "gloom and doom" scenario.
Despite obvious disregard by investors, clearly seen in the opening paragraph with Tesla's stock market tag.

I.e. "Manufacturing experts" who say that the company is "struggling" are ONE "Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas".
Who, in the cited article said the following:

"Given the ever-higher level of technical and safety scrutiny facing all auto manufacturers, we find it very common for major launches to hit dealer lots later than the market anticipates," Jonas said.

Which was interpreted in TFA as:

One was that major launches are often delayed, although generally not for numerous times like Model X.

Note the slight bias?

The rest of it is in the same mode. Positive points and sentiment turned into negative.

Jonas refers to Tesla as "world's most important car company", calling the delay "an opportunity to buy" and a "silver lining".
Instead of talking about "generally numerous delays", furor, technological features not available - while dumping lines which present those things as positive.

Like " intense public interest in the product", "one of the most desirable âwhy buyâ(TM) characteristics" and the entire 4th point being a praise to Tesla.

Jonas, in his investor note, said there were four reasons he expected another delay for Model X. One was that major launches are often delayed, although generally not for numerous times like Model X. The second was that few prototypes have been spotted on the road.

Third, Tesla caused a little furor a few weeks ago, when it introduced an unexpected all-wheel drive version of the Model S, and Jonas thought the company might want to put more space between it and the Model X.Fourth, Model X is likely to be Teslaâ(TM)s most ad

"Tesla Q3 Earnings Live: Shares Rise, Strong Outlook for '15 Even While Model X Faces More Delays"
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ma...

Tesla reported a tiny third-quarter profit of $3 million using its preferred numbers while delivering a record 7,785 Model S sedans. That resulted in a $932 million quarter, up 55% from a year ago. But results were challenged by a month-long shutdown of the company's lone production facility as it tools up for the Model X crossover SUV it is introducing next year, albeit later than planned. Gross margin also took a small hit due to changes in warranty accounting, coming in at 23%. The sum total is that Tesla lowered its outlook for 2014 production to 33,000 total deliveries, from 35,000 citing the production deficit. Investors so far have shrugged off the news, sending the stock higher after hours.

Wall Street was looking for lower revenues and a small loss. But the numbers were buoyed by very strong sales of Zero Emission Vehicle credits, which totaled a "much higher than expected" $76 million, Tesla said.

"Tesla Shows Signs It's Struggling With Manufacturing"
http://www.forbes.com/sites/mi...

Tesla Motors TSLA +5.8% reported its third quarter results Wednesday. While analysts' attention was riveted to its financials, manufacturing experts saw two signs that the company is struggling.

First, Tesla lowered its 2014 production target to 33,000 vehicles, down from its goal of 35,000. Second, Tesla pushed back the delivery date for its upcoming Model X once more, to the third quarter of 2015. ...
The announcement validates the prediction made last month by Morgan Stanley MS +0.09% analyst Adam Jonas.

One has a "hey, no biggie" tone while the other uses weasel words and literal red herrings to push "gloom and doom" scenario.
Despite obvious disregard by investors, clearly seen in the opening paragraph with Tesla's stock market tag.

I.e. "Manufacturing experts" who say that the company is "struggling" are ONE "Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas".
Who, in the cited article said the following:

"Given the ever-higher level of technical and safety scrutiny facing all auto manufacturers, we find it very common for major launches to hit dealer lots later than the market anticipates," Jonas said.

Which was interpreted in TFA as:

One was that major launches are often delayed, although generally not for numerous times like Model X.

Note the slight bias?

The rest of it is in the same mode. Positive points and sentiment turned into negative.

Jonas refers to Tesla as "world's most important car company", calling the delay "an opportunity to buy" and a "silver lining".
Instead of talking about "generally numerous delays", furor, technological features not available - while dumping lines which present those things as positive.

Like " intense public interest in the product", "one of the most desirable âwhy buyâ(TM) characteristics" and the entire 4th point being a praise to Tesla.

Jonas, in his investor note, said there were four reasons he expected another delay for Model X. One was that major launches are often delayed, although generally not for numerous times like Model X. The second was that few prototypes have been spotted on the road.

Third, Tesla caused a little furor a few weeks ago, when it introduced an unexpected all-wheel drive version of the Model S, and Jonas thought the company might want to put more space between it and the Model X.Fourth, Model X is likely to be Teslaâ(TM)s most ad

It appears that Mount Stupid may be made entirely of Dark Matter.

Or we can stop with the anecdotes and look at a study: McKinsey Center for U.S. Health annual report

Some quotes from the Forbes article:

Any self-respecting conservative knows all too well that McKinsey is immune from attack as an organization committed to presenting a left leaning political slant as it remains a bastion of business advice and a company that simply cannot be painted with a blue brush.

When was the last time we saw insurance premiums experience an annual increase of less than 5 percent? I cannot remember such a time and doubt that you can either.

All in all, it is going to be quite a stretch for Obamacare opponents to turn this data into bad news. Increased competition among insurers means better prices and better policies. An increase in the number of policies one can choose from also means improvements in policy quality and premium costs.

Why does "diversity" insist on dictating what people do with their rare and precious free time?

Exactly! The fascist incompetent piece of shit known as Eric Holder had something to say about the way you self-segregate on your own time.

"And outside the workplace the situation is even more bleak in that there is almost no significant interaction between us. On Saturdays and Sundays America in the year 2009 does not, in some ways, differ significantly from the country that existed some 50 years ago."

Talk about a problem that doesn't need to be solved. I've lived on the east coast, and in the southwest. The Latinos integrate far more easily than do our own 'African Americans', and I cannot wait until there are sufficient Hispanics operating in concert with Anglos and Asians to marginalize this problem once and for all. Teach Spanish as a second language for all of our English speaking kids and let's get it over with and progress as a nation while leaving the losers behind.

That's so blatantly false I don't know where to begin. Let's start with "reckless spending": Obama is the LOWEST spender since Eisenhower. And that's those pinkos over at Forbes who say so. How about "an actual annual budget again": well, perhaps if Mitch McConnell and John Boehner hadn't been holding their breath until they turn blue to block it (and everything else Obama has proposed), we'd have had one approved. And about half a zillion federal appointments they've blocked.

The fact is, the Republican party has been systematically breaking government, ruining the economy and generally running this country into the ground for the last six years out of personal animosity for Barack Obama. I WILL grant you, however, that they have been *phenomenally* successful at blaming their systematic vandalism on him, and he's been too chickenshit to stand up to their bullying. Now that they've won a majority in the Senate as well, we can expect more show trials and hearings about hot-button non-issues like Bengazi.

A few FACTS:
1. We've now had 63 straight months of economic expansion.
2. We are currently enjoying the longest period of private sector job creation in American history.
3. Unemployment has dropped from 10.1% in October of 2009 to 5.9% and projected to reach 5.4% by summer of 2015.
4. The stock market continues to set new records since President Obama has been in office.
5. The Federal budget deficit is shrinking. Itâ(TM)s been reduced by two-thirds since 2009.
6. Under President Obama, spending has increased only 1.4% annually, the lowest rate since Eisenhower was president.
7. For 95% of American taxpayers, income taxes are lower now than just about any time in the previous 50 years.
8. Our dependence on foreign oil has shrunk due to record domestic oil production and improved fuel efficiency standards.
9. At least 7 million more Americans now have health insurance than before.
10. The Affordable Care Act has added years to the life of Medicare.
11. Since passage of the Affordable Care Act, we are seeing the slowest rate of increase in healthcare costs since 1960.
12. We currently have fewer soldiers, sailors and airmen in war zones than any time in over 10 years.
13. There have been zero successful attacks by al Qaeda on US soil since Obama became president.
14. We now successfully catch and deport more illegal immigrants than ever before.

You ARE correct, however, that Duverger's Law pretty much guarantees that a first past the post voting system will inevitably result in a two-party system.

Oh, so we're free to buy goods and housing at third world prices?

No, mostly because people like you work hard to keep cheap good from being importated.

All the CEO's that make more than $500k a year have been fired and replaced with MBA's from India?

Why, yes, we're getting there:

http://online.wsj.com/articles...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ro...

http://www.forbes.com/2009/12/...

http://www.hbs.edu/recruiting/...

So, the percentage of foreign-born workers at the top is higher than for regular folks. But you'll find some way of working yourself up about that too.

Oh, so we're free to buy goods and housing at third world prices?

No, mostly because people like you work hard to keep cheap good from being importated.

All the CEO's that make more than $500k a year have been fired and replaced with MBA's from India?

Why, yes, we're getting there:

http://online.wsj.com/articles...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ro...

http://www.forbes.com/2009/12/...

http://www.hbs.edu/recruiting/...

So, the percentage of foreign-born workers at the top is higher than for regular folks. But you'll find some way of working yourself up about that too.

Just to clarify what I'm talking about:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/su...
https://www.cryptocoinsnews.co...
https://www.quora.com/Why-does...
https://news.ycombinator.com/i...
http://www.thefrisky.com/2014-...

While "rich kids toy'" gets the publicity and PR, NASA does suborbital flights and has looking for private launch firms to help there as well as orbital flights. To this end a few month's ago Forbes reported NASA awarded Virgin Galactic a suborbital contract.

A quick web search turned up the Suborbital Research Association, which is composed of people interested in the science side of suborbital flights.

No, Virgin Galactic flights are not just for rich playboys and playgirls. There is science waiting for the flights as well... science that may well private suborbital flights financially viable.

DemCare Obamacare .. ObamaPhone BidenPhones

You mean Early 90s NeoCon Care and Reagan/GW Bush Phones — Obama can't rightly take the credit (or blame) for either program.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/in...

Not a single dime.

Well, at least let Facebook CEO invest his money in not too bad things such as this. Before his investors start asking him for real profits: http://www.forbes.com/sites/in...

That said, I'm fully willing to believe that wind power is cheaper than nuclear on a per-megawatt basis. What I don't believe is that wind power can reliably provide baseload power. All the studies in the world don't change one simple and indisputable fact: present-day production of wind power is miniscule compared to present-day electricity usage. Wind power has not yet proved that it can supply large quantities of power. Nobody except the most blind zealot would deny this plain fact.

Nuclear power supplies one sixth of present-day electricity usage worldwide. This is a very large amount of power compared to any other carbon-free technology. Nuclear power is not directly subject to vagaries of the weather. Even including Fukishima and Chernobyl, nuclear power is by far the safest energy source (wind power comes in a very respectable second). Available supplies of nuclear fuel will outlast the lifetime of the sun. Nuclear power is proven and it works. Wind may work, and I'm happy to give it the benefit of the doubt, but it is without question an unproven technology at large scale.

CurrentC is a coalition of different retailers, Wal-Mart is only one of them. Don't make it out like this is another evil scheme of Wal-Mart's design.

Walmart organized MCX and leads it. http://www.forbes.com/sites/la... I don't know where you are getting the "evil" part but it most certainly is WalMart's design.

Well there was that time that Sheriff Joe and Steven Seagal partnered up to bust a cockfighting ring, except when they drove a tank into the guy's house, they killed a puppy and reportedly some of the chickens they were trying to save...

1.4M employees, check.
$16B is for all of walmart, not just the Walton's stock. They own around half.

$8.81 moving to $100/hour almost makes the $8 insignificant, but I'll use $91.19 anyways.

1/3rd are part time.

Using 1.4M employees, that's roughly 1,867M full time hours, 467M part time hours. 2.3B employee hours/year. So increasing average employee pay to $100/hour would cost the Waltons $210B of their $8B of income from Walmart a year. For that matter, raising average pay to $12.29 would wipe out their income period. You could reach $15.77 if you theoretically turned Walmart into a non-profit.

$2/hour to the proposed federal minimum wage increase would seem doable though. It would also increase our tax base - more people paying the higher income tax rates vs the 15% max long term capital gain rate the Waltons almost certainly take advantage of.

The product hasn't been released yet and won't be until the 2nd quarter of 2015.

And yet MCX has plenty of detailed information on how the system works and what payment methods they will accept.

They have plenty of time to get their ducks in a row.

Translation: You have no actual proof.

The information on the website isn't up-to-date. http://www.forbes.com/sites/pe... [forbes.com]

What is that link supposed to show me? It doesn't list anything about MCX accepting credit cards. It also does not back up your unsubstantiated claim about an Apple "F-U fee". The fee is simply the bog standard payment processing fee. And Apple having negotiated discounted processing fees would actually make them the opposite of an "F-U fee".

The product hasn't been released yet and won't be until the 2nd quarter of 2015. They have plenty of time to get their ducks in a row. The information on the website isn't up-to-date. http://www.forbes.com/sites/pe...

those retailers pay very low transactions fees (less than 0.2%).

Not true. Apply Pay is linked to the buyer's credit card, so merchants still have to pay swipe fees to the bastards at Visa, MasterCard, et. al.

Fine by me, that way I only gotta port it to one platform. Should also make support easier. So if you want my app, get Android. If you don't have one, sucks to be you.

Not knocking your choices, but see your deliberate abstaining from iOS made me want to know which platform is better for monetization of apps. That led me to this article: For Mobile Monetization, Choose Android for Ads and Apple For In-App Purchases and the stats of:

iOS users are 32% more likely to make a purchase, and spend 10% more than Android users. Developers using the in-app purchasing and freemium models will also want to take note of the in-app purchasing numbers, with iOS users spending 45% more the Android users on in-app purchases.

Google’s mobile platform typically generates more engagement per app. Although session times remain consistent between Android and iOS, Android users will start more app sessions per month (on average by 17%).

So to be cynical you need to consider how much money you can squeeze out of each user for each platform and use that to decide whether supporting the platform is a worthwhile ROI. However I also saw a stat that said there are more than 2x number of android users - so you need to factor that in as well.

Yeah, we wish...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ro...

I hadn't noticed that [that climate scientists work for governments -mi]. Do you have a source on these two facts?

Dear, I don't have a source, that the sky is blue. Are you going to deny it until I find one? There are no privately-owned employers for "climate scientists" studying "global warming" — they employed by governments, or government-funded universities.

Florida's not a very large sample space.

Florida is a very large portion of the Atlantic coast, that gets hurricanes at all.

The intensity, frequency, and duration of North Atlantic hurricanes ... globalchange.gov

That link of yours is remarkably lacking in actual data (as in numbers, rather than words). If that's the best you could find, you should start asking yourself some questions...

What do you think needs to be discarded.

The people, who — 10 years ago — predicted the rise of hurricane activity need to be fired from their tax-funded jobs. They failed us and we don't want to keep paying them.

The fact that burning fossil fuels increases atmospheric CO2 concentration?

Plants love CO2. Maybe, the problem — if it is a problem — is not in burning too much fuel, but in not having enough forests to process it?

The fact that increasing the atmospheric concentration of a greenhouse gas will increase the greenhouse effect? You're talking like these aren't well proven points with a century of optics and thermodynamics behind them.

It is even better "proven", that by jumping, I push the rest of Earth in the opposite direction. Is there any danger in our planet changing its orbit from humanity's jumping up and down? Should we be working on reducing such jumping world-wide?

The CO2 did keep increasing for the last 10 years. Yet, no growth in hurricanes materialized and the entire "global warming" is now considered "on hold". Probably, because other — much greater — factors affect climate...

But I intend to stick around for another 10 years. We can continue this discussion then...