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Tampa hasn't been directly hit by a hurricane since 1921. Not to say it couldn't happen, but I just don't get the 'weather' argument. I remember the reassurances from Amazon Web Services last year when the 'Frankenstorm' headed for Virginia.

If that's the case why not require the US reported earnings to be limited to whatever that's taxable in the USA? So if you're going to count it in the USA you're either going to have to bring the money in to the USA, OR you could leave it in Ireland, but pay the tax as if you earned that the USA.

They might have to tweak this clause a bit too: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericsavitz/2012/11/13/revealed-how-u-s-companies-can-repatriate-cash-tax-free/

There are scanners and TSA upon arrival at many USA airports. If you got out of your basement and traveled the world you would see them at SEA (Seattle-Taccoma International), MEM (Memphis International), and at least up until a year or so ago, at ATL (Atlanta International). In those and likely some others, US Customs (which happens after US Immigration) exits into the airside "sterile" section of the airport, not "landside". So in order to arrive in the USA and exit the airport, yes, you do have to clear through TSA. I've flown into the USA into all three airports internationally and have had to go through TSA to get out.

More common in US airport layout is where the US ICE section exits to the outside, or to the main concourse, such as Boston Logan Terminal E, Denver International, the TBIT terminal at LAX, the various terminals at JFK, O'Hare International in Chicago, etc. But not all.

BTW there are no X-Ray whole-body scanners in Amsterdam, as the EU doesn't allow them. What there is at AMS is at-gate security of the typical x-ray carryon bag scanner, before you are able to enter the actual departure lounge area. Plus if flying out of AMS on a USA-based airline, a contract employee asking you the stupid questions that they stopped asking in the USA 10 years ago. "Who packed your bag?", etc.

vinehair could have hit scanners and the TSA full monty in the USA. If flying out of AMS to the USA, there is a high likelihood he was on either Delta or KLM, a Delta hub because of the old KLM-Northwest joint venture, and two of the AMS-US likely routes are into either MEM or ATL. With SEA also a possibility; I think KL still flies that.

China's total tax burden is the 2nd highest in the world.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2013/01/11/like-weve-been-saying-radiation-is-not-a-big-deal/

"A very big report came out last month with very little fanfare. It concluded what we in nuclear science have been saying for decades – radiation doses less than about 10 rem (0.1 Sv) are no big deal. The linear no-threshold dose hypothesis (LNT) does not apply to doses less than 10 rem (0.1 Sv), which is the region encompassing background levels around the world, and is the region of most importance to nuclear energy, most medical procedures and most areas affected by accidents like Fukushima."

Which goes against what the peer reviewed science says. When you provide references you may have credibility. Yes, later I will

-mrkaos

I suspect that the FAA will rescind this waiver....

According to Citi's equity research team, the FAA already committed to performing only empty propaganda during their "comprehensive review," to reassure the public and Boeing's customers. http://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2013/01/11/faas-787-dreamliner-probe-a-formality-to-protect-u-s-jobs-and-reassure-the-public-citi/

It's hard to know which organization to trust least: Boeing, Citi, the FAA, or Forbes.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2013/01/11/like-weve-been-saying-radiation-is-not-a-big-deal/

"A very big report came out last month with very little fanfare. It concluded what we in nuclear science have been saying for decades – radiation doses less than about 10 rem (0.1 Sv) are no big deal. The linear no-threshold dose hypothesis (LNT) does not apply to doses less than 10 rem (0.1 Sv), which is the region encompassing background levels around the world, and is the region of most importance to nuclear energy, most medical procedures and most areas affected by accidents like Fukushima."

Why would doing something you like for money stop being fun. Sure some parts of the job, may not be enjoyable but others our. Even in hobbies you may not enjoy every single aspect of that hobby.

I like my job, solving problems is great fun. Are there things I would rather do yes, but that doesn't mean work is not enjoyable. There is nothing about work that implies that it cannot be fun.

As for the percentage of the population who enjoy there work it is hard to say because I can only draw from my personal experience, probably the same as you

quick search give a bunch of numbers:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2011/11/11/your-emotionally-disconnected-employees/ 70% unhappy
http://articles.businessinsider.com/2010-10-04/strategy/30001895_1_new-job-passion-careers 80% unhappy.
http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-201_162-6056611.html 55% unhappy and rising but you would expect that sort of thing with shrinking job market, since more people have to settle.

This is not a problem, it is a strategy: http://www.forbes.com/sites/harveysilverglate/2013/01/03/black-whitey-how-the-feds-disable-criminal-defense/

Depends on how you define market. This Forbes article argues that Microsoft's market share has collapsed.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/12/13/microsofts-market-share-drops-from-97-to-20-in-just-over-a-decade/

That's an interesting read. Perhaps they've spotted a pattern. This story is very similar one that was reported last year regarding the 4S

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericsavitz/2011/11/09/apple-reportedly-tells-iphone-parts-makers-to-delay-shipments/

I wonder what we'll see this time next year.

Stephen King is estimated by Forbes to make $45 million/year. Now, I understand that in certain circles that isn't really considered "rich", but if that's your peer group then I think we can safely conclude that you're not going to be on welfare any time soon.

I didn't want to be an anonymous coward so I logged in to repost the above. If you remove the figures of death by homicide and accidents, the U.S is number 1 in life expectancy. Also, if you look at life expectancy after medical intervention (for things like cancer, heart disease) the U.S. is also number 1. Remember, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/aroy/2011/11/23/the-myth-of-americans-poor-life-expectancy/

This article highlights some of the things you mention.
As the author points out, Boeing was forced to keep pushing the delivery date on the 787 for over 3 years

Boeing Has An Airplane Problem, Not a PR Problem
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathansalembaskin/2013/01/10/boeing-has-an-airplane-problem-not-a-pr-problem/

blah blah blah
blah blah blah
you don't have to pay taxes because it's unconstitutional, but the IRS doesn't want you to know that.
blah blah blah

Wesley, they let you have internet access there?

I agree, but why would it have gone through the roof?

I would posit that it would due to conventional oil production is in a state of decline or at best level outputs. Discoveries and new fields aren't covering the depletion gap, they haven't for some time. Here's a graph of discoveries versus production:

http://www.forbes.com/pictures/efee45fmdh/oil-production-v-oil-discovery-2/

Saudi Arabia claims to have a bunch of excess production (over the OPEC quotas). They have stated publicly that they want $100 per barrel oil. If oil went to $150 or higher, would Saudi/OPEC bring their excess capacity to the market? Could they (the key question, the only one that really matters)?

Alternative oil fields help to keep a cap on oil prices but at the same time are dependent on oil prices being at a certain level where such oil production is economically feasible. That we are talking about such oil production at all is proof of "peak oil". Otherwise conventional (and much cheaper) oil production would be all that is needed.

If Saudi/OPEC did have a bunch of excess capacity they could dump it on the market and crush alternative oil developments.

The next couple of decades will be very interesting in my opinion...

How's this for you?

A cop gets my phone...will take them more than casual effort to get into it, no?

Actually, no.

Generally, law enforcement is going to get into your phone pretty handily.

Video is normally recorded to your micro-SD card, right? If they get your phone, what stops them from popping out the card, bypassing whatever security your phone has in place?

A cop gets my phone...will take them more than casual effort to get into it, no?

Actually, no.

Generally, law enforcement is going to get into your phone pretty handily.

Please stop living in the past.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyclay/2012/12/21/windows-phone-now-third-most-popular-platform-in-u-s/

Then at twelve you find out the kid is smart enough to work out that physical access to the hardware can lead to full control :) It's the old "put it on the top shelf" solution upgraded to the electronic age with a different ladder. If it's really important to keep it away from the kids for a long time you need a locket gun cabinet style solution instead of just putting stuff on a difficult to get to top shelf. A portable drive in a locked drawer may do that trick.

Think again

Plenty. And if you include attending without graduating, it's even more. Attending may actually be more important than actually graduating, as networking (the social skill, not the technology) is critical to business success.

http://www.forbes.com/2008/05/19/billionaires-harvard-education-biz-billies-cx_af_0519billieu.html

No person who has served as a Senator for more than nine years, or as a Representative for more than eleven years, shall be eligible for election or appointment to the Senate or the House of Representatives respectively, excluding any time served prior to the enactment of this Article.

My own creative input would be a "Kill Switch Amendment", whereby, at 18 months, 2/3 of State legislatures have to certify a Congress "Doth Suck Not". Failure to pass muster means that no sitting Congresscritter can run for that seat again next time they stand for election. Like chemotherapy, a few good cells may be lost. I'm confident we've the population to compensate. The nice feature is that you could safely toss all 535 pieces of work in a shot, blowing away the seniority incentives that ensure an abject piece of work like, say, Jim Moran, has SCOTUS-like tenure.

An alternative is the debt jubilee http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/10/05/could-national-debt-forgiveness-help-kickstart-the-american-economy/

I subscribe to the technocrat view of money, their 1930s study guide was mostly written by M. King Hubbert of peak oil fame.
http://www.technocracy.org/study-guide

This sees the money and price system as self-destructive by way of inherently building a mounting debt against the future. The solution is to cap overall wealth by replacing money with energy chits; these expire every couple of years so no lien can build up against future energy supply.

Taxes paid on it.

Dead people earn a lot of money, and pay taxes on it: http://www.forbes.com/special-report/2012/1024_dead-celebrities.html

And no, you can't take it with you, unfortunately.

Vampires are undead, who live off the living. In the case of celebrities, there are living people who are living off the dead.

Taxes in the US are at an all time low.

With the exception of the two world wars, USA's total government spending has been growing consistently. It also has nearly the highest corporate tax rate in the world.

The top income tax rate might be lower than before, but simply because people have more opportunity to leave a high-tax country than ever before. USA could afford to have high income taxes when it was the freest nation in the world, and half the world was at risk of falling into communist hands. Today Russia has a 13% flat tax! USA gets mediocre rankings on the Tax Misery Index, particularly in urban areas (under Democrat control).

The last time the wealth was this badly skewed in favour of the super rich with such ludicrously low taxes the Great Depression happened.

The "great depression" was a result of socialist policies, not income inequality.

It's not a coincidence. Funnelling money into the hands of the few and crippling the middle and lower classes brings the economic engine to its knees.

Funneling money? Wealth is redistributed from the rich to the poor (with much of it destroyed en route through government inefficiency and corruption).

Perhaps in your religion money falls from the sky, and the gods that send it intend for it to be shared equally, but that is not an objective understanding of economics. Money is created through human productivity, and some people simply create more of it than others. Some people invent new technologies and make decisions that improve our world, while others spend their days as robots, performing motions that were thought-out by others.

--libman

-Push all Entitlements back to the states.
-Rescind the 16th&17th Amendments.
-Remove Bernanke's anti-Constitutional power to inflate the currency.
-Move the House closer to its original apportionment per the 1787 Constitution.
-Adopt something like Randy Barnette's Bill of Federalism.

In summary, confining our Federal Government to federal tasks will see us relatively less fed up.

(1) USA is #1 in donations per capita, and #3 in volunteering of time.

(2) Government-forced "aid" should not exist - all charity should be voluntary. When given voluntarily, in a free market environment where charity institutions compete on the basis of merit, aid tends to be far more effective. What is the point of giving money to some third-world dictator if it only strengthens his power and makes his "subjects" worse off in the long run?

(3) You cannot compare a country as large and diverse as the USA to a couple of small hand-picked homogeneous Northern-European nations. These few small countries have a remarkable culture and work ethic; they were the first in the world to go capitalist and industrialize, and they have been coasting off the economic momentum ever since. Why not compare USA to a slice of Europe with a comparable population of 315 million? The per-capita numbers will definitely be in USA's favor!

(4) The "wretched refuse" immigrants from those countries that left for America are now wealthier than those that stayed! Comparing apples to apples, I bet Scandinavian-Americans / Dutch-Americans / etc also give more to charity than their counterparts that have remained in Europe.

(5) A large country is also disadvantaged in "foreign aid" numbers - someone from Utah helping a Hurricane Katrina victim doesn't count, while an Austrian giving to a charity in near-by Albania does.

(6) Lest you forget - it was USA that paid to save the world from a multitude of global socialist threats over the past century, from Fascism to Soviet Communism to Baathism, including clandestine ops that have saved many countries from going socialist in the first place. Chile would be just another Cuba if not for the USA! The same could be said about dozens of other countries as well. But, instead of recognition and gratitude, all USA gets in return is jabs from economically-illiterate punks who once saw an emotionalist Michael Moore movie and now think they have a monopoly on truth!

(7) Foreign aid might be a national religion in places like Norwaystan, which has so much natural resources per capita that they're ridden with guilt over it, but most Americans make their money the hard way. USA has no ancient monarchies and noble houses passing wealth from generation to generation. It also doesn't have a history of colonial tyranny on the scale of the Belgians, and no ghosts of war and genocide like the Germans. We (and I'm a naturalized USA'ian, by choice and conviction) don't need to use foreign aid to fig-leaf our guilt!

(8) What most people fail to understand is that, before being redistributed, wealth must be created in the first place, and therein lies the chief virtue! Putting your money into the private sector (including "microcredit") instead of giving it away also does tremendous good. Poor people of this world benefit from technological innovation and investment far more than they do from simple handouts of aid! Give a man a fish, and he may eat for a day; give him freedom and a more rational way of life, and he will never be hungry again!

--libman

Actually you can and there is a protocol for that.

http://www.forbes.com/2005/08/31/technology-tools-knife_cx_de_0831knife.html

The idea of banning knives is silly really. It may reduce incidents of people carrying them, maybe. A knife is a simple machine. Any object that is wedgelike and sharp on one side is a knife. I mean, people stuck in prisons have never made knives.

Do you have any economic papers or non mass media sources that back up your analysis?

Unfortunately not anymore. I looked this stuff up several years ago, getting federal revenue and tax rates from different sources. "Original research" I suppose. I don't remember which sites those were at exactly. It took me about half an hour, iirc.

Sorry I can't give you any better than that.

The Forbes link:
      http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikepatton/2012/10/15/do-tax-cuts-increase-government-revenue/
has a very clear graph, showing the slope changing significantly (from negative to positive) when Bush changed the rate of the top bracket.

The first result I got was this:
      http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikepatton/2012/10/15/do-tax-cuts-increase-government-revenue/

It has a pretty clear graph.

If the first two results for you were those two (particularly the first one, obamaftw.com, seems like it's going to be a bit partisan), I might questioning the biases of your search engine.

Of course search engines are smart, maybe each engine is giving each of us what it thinks we'll personally like :)

why don't you first convince Nvidia to make their drivers install the first time without issue.

Valve is working on this. The Linux version of Steam is in beta right now , and NVIDIA has been pumping out press releases about their partnership with Valve on Linux for the last few months.

For the last decade (literally), people have been saying that the only reason why there's no games for Linux is because it's a chicken-and-egg problem - there's no games because there's no hardware support, and there's no hardware support because there's no games. Now Microsoft, with Windows 8 (and its built-in Steam competitor) has pissed off the Gaben, and I think things will change soon.

Valve throwing their weight behind it is probably going to make a lot of headway towards solving the problem within a few years; they have enough pull with both the chicken and the egg that they can encourage developers to support Linux, and hardware manufacturers to write proper drivers.

Delivering a hardware is not a hard thing to do ....

Hmm ... methinks the backers of the zioneyez project will disagree with you here.

Indeed this is the most significant truth of it all.

In iOS land alone are users "not responsible for their actions." For people to go around installing malware on PCs is a known problem. Save MSIE vulnerabiilities enabling drive-by installations and program execution, people install malware on their own machines.

Now if this story was about a vulnerability in Android devices which permitted this type of system compromise, we might have a much more significant story. But what we have, instead, is reaffirmation that with Android, users have freedom to install the software of their choice just as they have with MacOSX and Microsoft Windows and other Linux distributions. We also have the recognition that users are not invulnerable to attack because they are using something other than MS Windows.

Is this a sign that Android has "matured"? No. iOS is pretty mature and does not exactly suffer from such attacks. (oh wait, yes it does!) It is a sign that bad-wetware has recognized that Android is popular enough and free enough to make its users a target. At the end of the day, of course, it is the users which are being targetted and their devices, software and data are the means and the objective of the attack.

This story is useful in that it is important that everyone be aware of the risks of running any software, but especially software from dubious sources. But let's hope the real message is not lost in the hype and flag waving.

Here's another one for you that shows how detailed a profile they can build.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/

Here's my post with an excerpt from and direct link to the NYT article, which is a really good, but long, read.

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3342087&cid=42406221

Here's another one for you that shows how detailed a profile they can build.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/

Nuclear will be a necessary evil for the next 50-100 years.

What's "evil" about clean, safe, cheap power?

My beef is when they argue that nuclear is 'safer' than coal. Not true in any sense unless you exclude what 'could' happen.

It's true in the very real sense that coal causes thousands of deaths worldwide every year, while nuclear doesn't. What's the horrible death toll from Fukushima again?

Here's an article compariing various energy source's mortality rates.

Here's another touting nuclear as much safer, pointing out that coal pollution claims over 13,000 lives a year just in the US.

The tiger by the tail situation is that we need to get off fossil fuels basically yesterday, and the only available option for grid scale right now is nuclear. But we need to be investing in renewable now at the same time and usually the argument is that nuclear is the 'answer' and it isn't.

Nuclear is a fine answer, especially the next-gen and thorium based plants. I'm all for end-user solar as it becomes more cost-effective, but wind power is a loser that needs go away ASAP.

We can all hope that LENR pans out - that will mean colonization of the solar system, and flying cars for all! ;-)

The first GMO's were things like rice that grew Vitamin A so rural Asian children wouldn't go blind. That was good.

Actually, that one isn't even on the market yet. The first GE crop was actually virus resistant tobacco, in China. the second was the Flavr Savr tomato, in the US. Do you think that Golden Rice is a good idea? Then keep in mind that, by and large, the same people opposing the other GE crops you mention are opposing Golden Rice.

But instead, we got crops that are resistant to pesticides that are applied by the tanker load

I agree that it sounds bad, but not when you consider things holistically. Those herbicide tolerant crops have increased the usage of some herbicides, but they've decreased the use of harsher herbicides and reduced the need for environmentally damaging tillage. They've actually been pretty beneficial. Note also that many of Benbrook's works have been often criticized. Obviously, spraying chemicals is never a good thing if it can be avoided, but if you've got a better way to control weeds a lot of farmers would love to hear it.

and vegetables that express their own pesticides, which, we're kinda-maybe-sure don't effect humans

They don't. It is the same protein that has been used in organic farming for years to no ill effect. We know very well how it works, and yes, there has been much study on the health effects. By the way, all plants produce pesticides. It's how they defend themselves. Even your non-GE corn is going to be full of insecticidal maysin.

Dead people earn a lot of money: http://www.forbes.com/2006/10/23/tech-media_06deadcelebs_cx_pk_top-earning-dead-celebrities_land.html

It's difficult to put them in jail, though, for evading taxes. Or at least for the cellmate, who has to bunk with a stinking corpse.

If they put that dingy up for auction, some rich Arab or Russian would pay twice the price for it.

This only confirms that lego has indeed sold out.

Of course both are just copypasta from the Forbes article, which was probably just a rewrite of an AP story, which itself was just a rewrite of the press release.

... for the customer I think it will be bad for them

LOL!

http://www.forbes.com/sites/benzingainsights/2012/08/21/apple-now-most-valuable-company-in-history/

Citation Needed.

Citation given.

Citation given.

Citation given.

Citation given.

Depends on the worker.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/frederickallen/2011/12/21/germany-builds-twice-as-many-cars-as-the-u-s-while-paying-its-auto-workers-twice-as-much/
Frederick E. Allen
12/21/2011 @ 5:42PM |60,178 views
How Germany Builds Twice as Many Cars as the U.S. While Paying Its Workers Twice as Much
In 2010, Germany produced more than 5.5 million automobiles; the U.S produced 2.7 million. At the same time, the average auto worker in Germany made $67.14 per hour in salary in benefits; the average one in the U.S. made $33.77 per hour. Yet Germany’s big three car companies—BMW, Daimler (Mercedes-Benz), and Volkswagen—are very profitable.
How can that be? The question is explored in a new article from Remapping Debate, a public policy e-journal. Its author, Kevin C. Brown, writes that “the salient difference is that, in Germany, the automakers operate within an environment that precludes a race to the bottom; in the U.S., they operate within an environment that encourages such a race.”
There are “two overlapping sets of institutions” in Germany that guarantee high wages and good working conditions for autoworkers. The first is IG Metall, the country’s equivalent of the United Automobile Workers. Virtually all Germany’s car workers are members, and though they have the right to strike, they “hardly use it, because there is an elaborate system of conflict resolution that regularly is used to come to some sort of compromise that is acceptable to all parties,” according to Horst Mund, an IG Metall executive. The second institution is the German constitution, which allows for “works councils” in every factory, where management and employees work together on matters like shop floor conditions and work life. Mund says this guarantees cooperation, “where you don’t always wear your management pin or your union pin.”
Mund points out that this goes
        against all mainstream wisdom of the neo-liberals. We have strong unions, we have strong social security systems, we have high wages. So, if I believed what the neo-liberals are arguing, we would have to be bankrupt, but apparently this is not the case. Despite high wages . . . despite our possibility to influence companies, the economy is working well in Germany.
At Volkswagen’s Chattanooga plant, the nonunionized new employees get $14.50 an hour, which rises to $19.50 after three years.

http://www.remappingdebate.org/article/tale-two-systems
A tale of two systems
By Kevin C. Brown
Remapping Debate
Dec. 21, 2011
American autoworkers are constantly told that high-wage work is an unsustainable relic in the face of a hyper-competitive, globalized marketplace. Apostles of neo-liberal economic theory — both in the public and private sectors — have stressed the message that worker adaptation is necessary to survive....
But the case of German automakers — BMW, Daimler, and Volkswagen — tells a different story. Each company produces vehicles not only in Germany, but also in “transplant” factories in the U.S. The former are characterized by high wages and high union membership; the U.S. plants pay lower wages and are located in so-called “right-to-work” (anti-union) states. ... the UAW has made significant concessions on wages, especially through the creation of a permanent “Tier 2” level for all new employees. Whereas incumbent “Tier 1” workers earn about $28 an hour, all new UAW hires at the GM, Ford, and Chrysler earn around $15 per hour.

No. I was referring to: "Congress Bans Scientific Collaboration with China, Cites High Espionage Risks" http://www.forbes.com/sites/williampentland/2011/05/07/congress-bans-scientific-collaboration-with-china-cites-high-espionage-risks/ If China continues to be a closed society that prohibits access by the free press to its space ventures (and everything else), why the heck should we give them free access to NASA technology?

Touchscreen-enabled Chromebooks could change all that in 2013 though.

I just read an article about a young woman whose only crime was that she gave her boy-friend's Mother a ride to a house. The older woman went in unbeknownst to the girl for crack cocaine and was busted inside the house by an undercover officer. The girl received a mandatory 12 year prison sentence without the possibility of parole. She had no criminal record, was in the top 2% of her High School Class, volunteered public service regularly and had multiple scholarships for college. Even the Judge who presided over the case called it a grotesque miscarriage of justice and that these "hard on crime laws" with mandatory sentences that don't provide judicial discretion are stuffing the prisons with innocent people.

There are still people in Texas doing a life sentence for a gram of hash. Read this article to find out about some of the most ludicrous prosecutions that portray a gross disregard for people that has become commonplace in certain regions of the United States. There are many people in prison whose only crime is possession. The prosecution of poorer Americans (which means disproportionately people of color), has become a conveyor belt that is prison bound. The war on crime has created a legal assembly line with millions now serve (3 in 4 people in prison today are there as a result of the war on crime.) The police sandbag those they arrest to assure a prison sentence. Heaping felonies on a defendant, the defendant is then forced to choose a plea bargain for 10 years while facing 110 years worth of charges. Public defense is barely better than no defense at all. So innocent and guilty alike are shoveled into prison like human refuse. The war on drug has imploded the criminal justice system, and turned it into a revolving door that feeds people indiscriminately in, and to abate prison overcrowding lets others out, then again you have those states that have now turned their privatized prisons into labor camps, and the vary companies that provide prisons have lobbied for longer and harsher sentences because its good for their bottom line.

There is abundant information talking about the disproportionate prosecution of people of color for drug related crimes. You could read this article or this scholarly article. Before you comment on this, please bother to get at least basically informed on the subject. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark... er America.

Finally, the fact that you don't know about the corporate connections to Marijuana becoming illegal in the first place and remaining so currently just emphasizes that you haven't done your homework. You can go here to read this article to find out how an over ambitious Federal Agent and William Randolph Hearst worked together to demonize hemp in the first place. Today Big Pharma spends millions to keep Pot illegal because they don't want competition for their prescription analgesics, synthetic opiates, anti-nauseals, appetite enhancers, mood elevators and anti-carcinogenic drugs, and there's no money on a natural substance you can't patent. If it sucks today and involves more than 3 people, I can follow the money back to a lawyer, a politician and a corporation or a religious fanatic. That is the sad state of American in the twenty first century. Wake Up

Most pin and biometric safes are actually less secure than regular safes.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/marcwebertobias/2012/07/27/unsafe-gun-safes-can-be-opened-by-a-three-year-old/

It seems like the Final Acts of ITU at WCIT2012 will be remembered as crimes against humanity, no less. Read the act: http://www.itu.int/en/wcit-12/Documents/final-acts-wcit-12.pdf If you'll realize the the consequences you'll get the real tragedy: Governmental supervision on content in the name of "security & anti-spam"; the 'Free-Riders' (Google , Facebook, AWS & likes) will keep 'riding' on our infrastructure paid by our taxes; no mention of net neutrality & freedom of content even. As I see it, despite all the american 'Woo-Ha', the USA sold our freedom to China & Russia against the green dollars of the 'Corps'. It's about time Google will listen to Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/sap/2011/09/02/google-needs-to-drop-its-do-no-evil-thing/ Sad day for our planet.