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I agree that helping countries develop helps slow the birthrate. My point is that slowing the birthrate helps countries develop, also. Culture (ex: "Ten or 15 more sons will be a healthy sign.") and lack of birth control also contribute to big families.

And yes, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has helped women get birth control. Family planning is an important topic for Melinda Gates. I'm not saying people aren't emphasizing the need at all for birth control these days. But there was much more emphasis on it in the 1960s and 1970s. These days, how many warnings do you hear in the news, about population increase?

Regarding fear of seeming to be a racist, do a Google on "population control racism" (without the quotes). You'll see lots of articles, in which people claim that population control equals racism. Ex: the MotherJones has an article titled "Why Is Population Control Such a Radioactive Topic?". This article says, "Rinku Sen is a leading racial justice advocate, the publisher of ColorLines magazine, and president of the Applied Research Center: The reason people get so upset about population control is because historically reproduction has been controlled without the consent of the controlled person or community—usually with a deep racial or class dimension."

Certainly not everyone believes population control == racism. The government of China, with its one-child policy, is certainly not racist against Asians. But unfortunately, many people do think control == racism.

Have Hollywood fallen so far

Yes.

Well, to their credit, they did warn us. Thee was the Orgasmatron in "The Sleeper" and no-physical-contact brain-stimulated sex in "Demolition Man".

And then there's the real orgasmatron

Dr. Stuart Meloy never set out to study orgasms. It was an accident.

He was in the operating room one day in 1998, implanting electrodes into a patient's spine to treat her chronic leg pain. (The electrodes are connected to a device that fires impulses to the brain to block pain signals.) But when he turned on the power, "the patient suddenly let out something between a shriek and moan," says Meloy, an anesthesiologist and pain specialist in North Carolina.

Asked what was wrong, she replied, "You'll have to teach my husband how to do that."

After Challenger, the House Ways and Means Committee basically forced the ASRM onto NASA even though they didn't need it. Billions were spent on the Yellow Creek facility because of one congressman, Jamie Whitten, and it's now abandoned. Pork-barrel politics has been around since well, politics but that doesn't mean we have to like it or put up with the system that enables it.

And die young!

Los Angeles drivers + bicycle rider = dead bicyclist

From the LA times about earthquake insurance ...

Rethinking Your Stance on Earthquake Coverage
Californians have a well-deserved reputation for being in denial. We build our homes on flood plains, on brushy mountainsides, in the path of mudslides and on or near earthquake faults. Most of the time, most of us avoid catastrophe. But we should acknowledge that someday our luck could run out--and consider whether it's worth taking precautions to protect against the unthinkable.
http://www.latimes.com/la-home...

Spectrum is a natural monopoly (for that particular spectrum). Much in the way that real estate is a natural monopoly (for that particular patch of land). Giving a private party ownership in perpetuity of a natural monopoly breaks capitalism. A recurring cost needs to be added to encourage effective use. Property taxes accomplish that for real estate (when used properly, and not hijacked by the government as a source of revenue). If the property taxes are appropriate for the location, people making effective use of the land are able to pay it with little pain. People not making effective use of the land (e.g. a strawberry farm in the middle of a city) are unable to pay, and thus are encouraged to either change how they're using the land to generate revenue more appropriate for the location's potential, or to sell the land to someone who can/plans to generate such revenue.

The same needs to happen with spectrum. The government shouldn't be selling it. It should be leasing it. Every 5-10 years, it should reappraise how much revenue all spectrum is generating, and the annual lease amount raised to something commensurate with that revenue potential. Companies which are doing a thriving business with that spectrum will be able to pay the increased lease. Companies sitting on the spectrum just to keep it out of the hands of their competitors will indirectly be paying their competitors (via the government, which should use the funds for enforcement and to encourage development of technologies that use spectrum). And companies struggling will be forced to adopt newer (hopefully better) business models to use the spectrum, or be forced to sell to someone else who can. If they can't make it work, someone else should be given the chance.

You can even get fancy to thwart corner cases. e.g. To discourage sitting on spectrum to block competitors, tie the annual lease to the amount that the spectrum is used. If it's utilized 75% or more, you get the normal lease. If it's 50%-75% utilization, you pay 1.5x the rate. If it's 25%-50% utilization you pay 2x the rate. Less than 25% utilization and you pay 5x the rate. To discourage monopolization of large amounts of spectrum by a few companies, increase the annual lease depending on how many blocks you're leasing. But it all hinges on leasing spectrum instead of auctioning it off.

Back in 1991, this was to be the year to launch to Mars: http://articles.latimes.com/19...

Oh your right. Just like how Santa monica was forced by the FAA to limit flights into Santa monica Air port. OH WAIT. No one wants a new air port anywhere near them so I can't imagine that say West Hollywood, or Chesterfield Mo, or King of Prussia PA or Englewood CO or a zillion other Suburbs that don't want airports give a rats ass what the FAA wants. http://www.latimes.com/opinion... Lets see how this works out for the FAA.

Not the whole amount is going on the iPads. From TFA "To date, the district has spent $70 million on the project, purchasing 90,713 devices." which works out at about $770 per device, which I guess probably includes some textbook subscription.

Also from LA Times

The FBI seizure of documents came as the L.A. schools inspector general, Ken Bramlett, continued his inquiry into the events leading up to the agreement, which was expected to expand to about $500 million for the devices and curriculum -- and another $800 million for staffing, improved broadband and other costs -- as the iPad program rolled out across the sprawling school system.

So it's not the case that the entire billion is going on just buying iPads.

That said I agree that the money could still be spent in better ways.

What do you think, "a well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State" means?

To me it means, people should be armed so they can be ready to defend their free country.

In reading any document you have to look at the intent behind the wording, and their intent is pretty clear as the documents show.

Yeah, if we applied your principle to the First Amendment, the only "free speech" rights you'd have, would be to petition the government. And only for redress of grievances. (As well as only after registering, passing background checks, and only using means available in the 18th century — such as print or personal speech — but certainly not online or TV.)

no one really argues against the entire constitution

I certainly wish so, but that's just not true:

• Georgetown professor of Constitutional Law argues for abolishing the document
• And, of course, the Communists agree.

The primary argument — cited by all such "critics" — is that some of the founding fathers owned slaves. Presumably, they'd reject the Pythagorean theorem too, because the ancient mathematician was a slave-owner. And, for one more example, the Aristotle's Logic — on the same grounds...

Such is their hatred of the 2nd Amendment and limits on the government's power (when it is in Democratic control, of course), they don't realize, the 1st will be thrown out together with the 2nd.

But, perhaps more worryingly than these fringe loudmouths, is the calm dismissal of even the 1st Amendment by the boring bureaucrats of today: “This isn’t really the ’60s anymore [...] people can’t really protest like that anymore".

This is what work looks like with computers in charge. This is Amazon's new warehouse in Tracy, CA. The computers run the robots and do the planning and scheduling. The robots move the shelf units around/ The humans take things out of one container and put them in another, taking orders from the computers.

The bin picking will probably be automated soon. Bezos has a company developing robots for that.

As for repairing the robots, that's not a big deal. There are about a thousand mobile Kiva robots in that warehouse, sharing the work, and they're all interchangeable. Kiva, which makes and services the robots, has only a few hundred employees.

Retail is 12% of US employment. That number is shrinking.

The Stalin-era edition of Soviet Encyclopedia — a monumental collection of large volumes not unlike Britannica — once had a large article (full of praises, of course) about Lavrenty Beria. When Stalin died, Beria lost to others and was promptly shot.

To erase the memory of those praises, all owners of the encyclopedia (there weren't that many) were required to cut out the article about him — and replace it with an article about Bering Strait. True story...

In California for example much of the earthquake damage seems to be wooden houses although they have noticeably strengthened building codes Californians are still stuck with a whole lot of vulnerable older houses.

Backwards. Wooden structures do much better in earthquakes than more rigid structures -- which is why California's building codes allow wood, but ban unreinforced masonry (i.e. bricks) and lightly reinforced concrete. Wooden buildings aren't always as straight or safe after a major earthquake as they were before. But the vast majority of fatalities and serious injuries in quakes since 1933 have been from the collapse of concrete structures -- buildings and roads. see http://timelines.latimes.com/l...

Wiring? I live in a mostly rural area, and it's mostly a matter of cost I think. My neighborhood has underground utilities that are quite reliable. But most of the region has overhead wiring that is vulnerable to rain, ice, lightning and vehicles amputating the utility poles. Reason: If there are only a handful of customers per kilometer, the costs of burying the wiring are too high for the customer base to fund.

...Especially after the NY Times and LA Times seemingly rephrased and trumpeted out the following pro H1-B puff-pieces, as if on-queue from the cheap I.T. labor lobby in Silicon Valley, (where is the counterpoint opinion in these articles?):

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11...

http://www.latimes.com/busines...

The NY Times piece highlights Zenefits. Look at their current unfilled openings, as they seemingly warrant a NY Times articles focused on Zenefits' desire to get the H1-B action they're missing out on, (because they can't compete for H1-B labor *in* Silicon Valley alongside Google, Facebook, etc.).

57.9% of (black|black-hispanic) people who were stopped were arrested.

Seems like a pretty good hit-ratio — if one is not bothered by the whole thing being against Constitution to begin with, that is.

65.7% of the people whose race was recorded [emphasis mine -mi] and it wasn't black or black-hispanic who were stopped were arrested.

The "whose race was recorded" is a caveat you can drive a truck through...

So they stop the people who are less likely to be arrested more often.

Arrest is not the only possible outcome of frisking finding something illegal. Small amounts of marijuana, for example, will not result in arrest — the stuff is still illegal (for better or worse).

So where are your stats?

I made no claims — for all I know, NYPD might be racist — I'm simply scrutinizing the unsubstantiated claims by others. So far, no proof was presented...

Nobody measures OUT because on the grand scale of things, OUT is inconsequential. You can sit down at a restaurant and eat a 2700 calorie meal in a single sitting. Good luck burning that brulee french toast before you waddle into Red Robin for that 3800 calorie burger, fries and shake. Super size me, baby.

You want to look good? By all means, hit the gym.

You want to lose weight? Stop eating that shit.

You want to live to 100? This study says eat the right shit.

Here is the brass tacks... The EU sees a big rich american company doing business in the EU and they're not paying EU taxes. So they're going to fuck around with it until they figure out how to get money from it.

Actually, seems to me Google was paying taxes in EU:
http://www.latimes.com/busines...
http://www.businessweek.com/ma...

I don't know where their taxes will be going next.

Or dot you think Ireland is not a EU-country ?:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M...

Yeah ... banksters explain some part (certainly not all, but some for certain) of the immigration reform push:

Head of banking group pushes Republicans to back immigration reform

Wells Fargo Official Links Lending to Immigration Reform

Silicon Valley Bank: In Support of Immigration Reform

How Immigration Reform Will Help Fix The Housing Recovery

I have seen - predominantly on Slashdot, obviously, but also elsewhere, a sort of naive technocrats (who are often also libertarians) believing that as soon as some technology is needed, the invisible hand of the market magically creates this technology so one only has to sit and wait for this magic solution to appear out of thin air. The more down-to-earth kind of these people even tried to explain this magic by telling that this process happens by throwing enough money at a problem.

Unfortunately - and TFA is a picture book example of this - reality doesn't work that way. Breakthroughs don't happen by magic, they happen by meticulous research and a shitload of small steps. Solutions don't suddenly appear just when they are needed, a long lead time of research is required. And sometimes this new technology never comes up at all.

Umm, WHAT?!?!?!

"Market" my ass. It's governments that are force-feeding "green energy" failures down our throats - not "libertarian" wishful thinking.

Solyndra

Germany abandons "green energy"

US military forced to buy green fuel

Probably referring to the ESA engineer with a fashion problem.

Then get off your ass and start a parents union, or a voters union.

It is an uphill battle. Teacher's unions — as well as all other trade-unions — have the official support of the law.

A unionized workplace — private or governmental alike — can only hire union-members. This makes unions a monopoly, that ought to be illegal under the anti-trust laws, but aren't...

That's true for any union in general. In addition to that, teachers are uniquely positioned to place their points of view into the young minds. Though most tend to wise up as they gain life-experience, with the voting age set to the ridiculously low 18, those youngsters are a powerful and energetic — though largely clueless — voting block. And, to be sure, "educators" are now making noises towards lowering it even further.

So, yes, any corruption can — in theory — be dislodged. But it is not always easy in practice... I for one am doing, what I can, right here and now typing this...

Or alcohol.

Thank you, NRA and Congress, for giving our brave service men and women the freedom and personal responsibility to kill themselves when things get too tough.

http://touch.latimes.com/#sect...
Programs to prevent psychological problems in troops questioned
By Alan Zarembo
February 20, 2014, 7:34 p.m.

Many federal programs aimed at preventing psychological problems in military service members and their families have not been evaluated correctly to determine whether they are working and are not supported by science, says a new report commissioned by the Defense Department.

"A lot of their programs don’t have any good data behind them," said Kenneth Warner, a professor of public health at the University of Michigan who led the Institute of Medicine committee that produced the report. "We remain uncertain about which approaches work and which ones are ineffective."

At the same time, some proven interventions are not being used, the committee found. Researchers said there was ample evidence to suggest that limiting access to personal firearms on military bases would reduce suicides. About 60% of service members who take their own lives do it with guns — usually their own.

"Means restriction has been demonstrated to work," said David Rudd, a psychologist and suicide expert at the University of Memphis who served on the committee.

But in 2011, Congress prohibited the Defense Department from regulating legally owned personal firearms and ammunition on military bases.

http://iom.edu/Reports/2014/Pr...
Preventing Psychological Disorders in Service Members and Their Families: An Assessment of Programs
February 20, 2014

Among the small number of DOD-sponsored reintegration programs that exist, none appears to be based on scientific evidence. The committee was unable to identify any DOD evidence-based programs addressing the prevention of domestic abuse. More recently, the services have implemented a number of prevention interventions to address military sexual assault, yet a DOD review found that critical evaluation components needed to measure their effectiveness are missing.

The committee also found that environmental strategies with strong evidence of effectiveness are underutilized, such as restricting access to lethal means such as personal firearms to prevent suicide or homicide in domestic violence cases or placing restrictions on the sale of alcohol to reduce substance misuse.

In place of these proven approaches, the committee typically found interventions such as campaigns, Internet tools, or in-person events with no evidence for their effectiveness at preventing the targeted problem.

Once corrected for age demographics (which people tallying raw numbers usually forget to do), the suicide rate in US military is lower than civilian population.

You didn't actually read the articles, did you? That was only true up to the last decade.

Traditionally, the Army has been psychologically healthier than the rest of society because of screening, fitness standards and access to health care. Soldiers committed suicide at about half the rate of civilians with similar demographics. But starting in 2004, the Army rate has essentially caught up.

Couldn't it be the difference between fighting for something you believe in and fight for Bush or Obama?

Once corrected for age demographics (which people tallying raw numbers usually forget to do), the suicide rate in US military is lower than civilian population.

You didn't actually read the articles, did you? That was only true up to the last decade.

Traditionally, the Army has been psychologically healthier than the rest of society because of screening, fitness standards and access to health care. Soldiers committed suicide at about half the rate of civilians with similar demographics. But starting in 2004, the Army rate has essentially caught up.

Ahh, I see. Comcast is not cheating, you are just incompetent assholes.

So there is no need to bribe the FCC.

Oh wait.

Fifty-six hours after landing on the surface of a comet, Philae sent one more round of data about its new home across 310 million miles of space. Then, its power went out.

"@Rosetta, I'm feeling a bit tired, did you get all my data? I might take a nap..." read a message on the @philae2014 Twitter feed.

The Rosetta mission's twitter response: "You've done a great job Philae, something no spacecraft has ever done before."

All the experiments on board the lander had a chance to run and return information back to Earth. Philae's instruments scooped up material from the comet's surface, took its temperature, sent radio waves through its nucleus, and went hunting for hints of organic material. Cameras took the first panoramic images from the surface of a comet.

It has been a whirlwind ride for the lander, which was dropped onto the surface of the mountain-sized comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on Wednesday morning. Two harpoons that were designed to tether it to the surface failed to fire, and scientists say the lander made two bounces before becoming stable. The first bounce caused the lander to go one-third of a mile into the air.

Friday morning, ESA officials expressed concern that the lander would not have enough battery power left to send back any more data from experiments it was conducting on its new, icy home.

When Philae landed on the comet on Wednesday, it had enough battery power for about 60 hours of work. Scientists initially hoped that it would continue to operate on solar power, but the lander seemed to have settled in a hole on the comet, where it was surrounded by rock-like structures that block the sun.

Stefan Ulamec, the lander manager from DLR, said the that one of the solar panels on the lander was getting about an hour and 20 minutes of sunlight a day. Two other panels got just 20 to 30 minutes a day, he said.

At a news conference Friday morning before the last signal was received, Ulamec said it was possible that scientists would not hear from the lander again.

"We are hoping to get contact again this evening, but it is not secured," he said. "Maybe the battery will be empty before it talks to us."

Happily, that turned out not to be the case. On Friday evening, ESA reported that all the science experiments had been deployed, and that the lander had been rotated 35 degrees in an attempt to get more sun on one of its larger solar panels.

There is a chance that as the comet flies closer to the sun, the increase in solar energy will allow ESA to communicate with Philae once again.

ESA officials say the odds of that happening are small, but with Philae, the little lander that could, anything is possible.

For those of us who don't know, or those of us who aren't in the states if this is a USA thing, what's a "buy-here-pay-here" dealer?
How is it different from any other dealer?

They specialize in selling cars to people who can't really afford them. Their customers are considered high risk and can't get credit elsewhere, so they charge high interest rates. When said people fall behind on their payments, they repossess the cars and sell them again to someone else. It's not uncommon for a dealer to sell the same used car 5 or 6 times. It's a fairly dodgy business model.

You cannot deny access in Califorrnia either. Some people try to, but legally you can't.

"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

Yup. In L.A. County it's InkaVote. Works just fine. The ballot box verifies that it can read your ballot when you insert it.

Too bad.they've just OK'd development of a touch screen system

These guys

http://www.latimes.com/world/a...

says Los Angeles, the dirtiest city in the US, is cleaner than the 45 "cleanest" cities in China. Boycot Wal*mart and it would make a dent. Maybe.

The LA Times has recently covered how Electronics For Imaging (EFI) clearly underpaid Indian immigrant laborers. $1.21 an hour in Silicon Valley, 122 hours in a week, and no overtime. Thank goodness EFI got caught!

http://www.latimes.com/busines...

Still, I don't think the non-IT general public knows an industry called IT *labor* even exists. Except for the Obama-care website snafu that is. (Maybe in Oregon, the folks there know about Oracle Corp. by now) Millions of iPhones are begging for greater robotic assemblies, because those gizmos don't build themselves, and it'll happen.

Oh, I forgot. You're about to ask for a citation, so...

http://articles.latimes.com/20...

You can find more about what Nigeria has done here:

http://www.latimes.com/world/a...

Nothing they did was especially innovative. Their response was textbook. You quarantine anyone infected, you question anyone infected about everyone they've come in contact with, you investigate all of those people, and you do not take the virus lightly.

None of this is new. It is basic.

The people saying we can't have screening or quarantine procedures for political reasons don't seem to grasp that viruses don't care about your politics. It is like when Achilles says to Hector "there are no pacts between lions and men"...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

The virus will show no pity, no hesitation, and no remorse. It exists to eat and spread.

Just as we have procedures for dealing with forest fires or other natural phenomenon. You don't let politics dictate how you deal with them. There is a correct way and an incorrect way. If you choose the incorrect path because it is politically more correct, then that natural phenomenon will exploit your arrogance and do what it does.

Again, I'm not worried about an outbreak in the US. I am however concerned about the glaring and obvious incompetence of the government. I am routinely shocked by how stupid they are on so many issues.

It sounds like you are thinking the drawings encourage pedophilia when perhaps, allowing drawings protects real children. There is probably a genetic predisposition or sometimes, organic brain diseases that in most cases, won't be "cured" ( http://articles.latimes.com/20... ). So, if instead we look toward harm reduction, using drawings is a perfect solution because it gives an outlet that harms absolutely nobody and may well serve as an alternative to actually hurting kids for those infected with this disease.

Whenever NASA (or any other agency) cancels a contract because they lack confidence in the contractor, it probably means that someone in the government is paying attention to what's going on, and is holding the responsible party's feet to the fire.

Compare this to situations where billions of dollars of money are tossed away in the pursuit of unworking (and possibly unworkable) missle defense systems.

The early release and refusal to place new inmates in California is huge. According to federal statistics, California dropped 50k internments per year and are releasing early 13k per month. Just their decline alone accounts for 72% of total US reductions. Depending on the length of sentences, they may well have sent home the entire 200k 'drop' in prisoners. And other major state prison systems admit their lowering of prison sentences for drug crimes is the reason for their drops.

And the california plan seems to be raising some crimes there

"By contrast, we find robust evidence that realignment is related to increased property crime. In terms of overall property crime, we estimate an additional one to two property crimes per year on average for each offender who is not incarcerated as a result of realignment. In particular, we see substantial increases in the number of motor vehicle thefts, which went up by 14.8 percent between 2011 and 2012. (Magnus Lofstrom and Steven Raphael, Public Safety Realignment and Crime Rates in California, Public Policy Institute of California, Dec., 2013 at p. 2.)"

http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub...

http://www.latimes.com/local/c...

http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub...

Multiple got redesigned, such that links lead to their homepage instead of the articles I was interested in.

An example

There's tons of information on the adult observation. I just can't find the one that links it back to childhood. Sorry. I do have this one that says that the traits they're measuring do go back to childhood, which is still not the source I'm remembering, which actually tested infants and waited years for the final test of political stance. I just can't do much better.

Also, I guess you forgot about the Roxanne and Herbert Pulitzer divorce, that set the style for these sort of "let's get the dirty laundry out" celebrity divorces, such as Britney Speares in 2007, and everyone now airing all the dirty laundry on facebook.

http://www.latimes.com/busines...

His 2010 cameo in Iron Man 2 didn't hurt either, and neither did the use of SpaceX for filming of some scenes.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ve...

It also helps that unlike Ellison his products are both physical and have direct practicality for most of the population so he is more easily associated with the inventor aspect of Tony Stark persona.
Signature red color of his space-age car is another bonus.
And so is the whole "rocket man" thing.

In comparison, Ellison is more like Tony Stark BEFORE Iron Man.
Yachting billionaire who collects cars, jets, islands and women and has a million dollar entertainment system which uses a swimming pool as a subwoofer, while his "charity" donations seem mostly to revolve around lawsuits.

As for comparison to Steve Jobs...
As the Iron Man 2 article above stated, Steve Jobs has "always been less Iron Man, more Willy Wonka".
Who, while espousing such lines as "Do you want to sell sugared water for the rest of your life? Or do you want to come with me and change the world?" ended up selling overpriced toys.

While Musk actually seems to be trying to actively fulfill the second part of that quote.

LA Times article on Dux.

http://articles.latimes.com/19...

http://www.latimes.com/nation/...

"Some Ebola experts worry virus may spread more easily than assumed"

"public health officials have voiced similar assurances, saying Ebola is spread only through physical contact with a symptomatic individual or their bodily fluids. "Ebola is not transmitted by the air. It is not an airborne infection," said Dr. Edward Goodman of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, where the Liberian patient remains in critical condition.

Yet some scientists who have long studied Ebola say such assurances are premature â" and they are concerned about what is not known about the strain now on the loose. It is an Ebola outbreak like none seen before, jumping from the bush to urban areas, giving the virus more opportunities to evolve as it passes through multiple human hosts."

So maybe not "airborne" but possibly can spread without contact in close quarters, or who knows what else since this strain doesn't act like other strains.

From the clinic, where she was given an intravenous drip but deteriorated sharply, they were sent to an Ebola treatment unit and then another, at a time when there were no Ebola beds available in the city

If you show up for one thing, and they send you off for treatment of Ebola, it would definitely seem you should be concerned it may be the issue when she died the next day (not complications from the pregnancy)

http://www.latimes.com/world/a...

Whether he lied or not, some accounts say that he believed the woman he aided had malaria, not Ebola. And the woman's family themselves may have lied to the people aiding them.

Ultimately, the biggest breakdown occured with the hospital, which was told twice that he had just traveled from Liberia on the first visit, and has since admitted this information was available to all providers. This has caused the tilt to the other extreme, with even the most innocuous cases of fever, adominal distress, and similar, with no travel or other history that would point to Ebola, being handled as such "out of an abundance of caution".

Keep in mind that viral hemorrhagic fevers (VHFs) are nothing new in the US. what happens in the United States with other fatal VHFs, that, like Ebola, are only spread via direct contact with bodily fluids and can be easily addressed in first world nations:

Hanta: http://www.cdc.gov/hantavirus/...

Marburg: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/previe...

Lassa: http://www.cdc.gov/media/relea...

Hanta is especially on point, as the US typically has dozens of cases -- and dozens of deaths -- each year, all of which are rapidly contained. The cases of "imported" VHFs, like has occurred with Marburg and Lassa, result in identification, isolation, and either the recovery or death of that person -- and that's the end of it.

Also, Ebola is NOT airborne. Ebola researchers will AT MOST say things like:

Peters, whose CDC team studied cases from 27 households that emerged during a 1995 Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo, said that while most could be attributed to contact with infected late-stage patients or their bodily fluids, "some" infections may have occurred via "aerosol transmission."

"Those monkeys were dying in a pattern that was certainly suggestive of coughing and sneezing â" some sort of aerosol movement."

"May". "Suggestive". "Some sort".

Even if we change all of these statements to absolute certainty, it still does not translate to, "Ebola is airborne," in the meaning of "airborne" in the context of disease transmission.

Airborne transmission occurs when a droplet nuclei containing a virus (or bacteria) is small enough (10 μm) occurs when droplets of saliva or mucous (or even blood) containing the virus are projected during a sneeze or cough and and projected directly onto someone's eyes, mouth, or mucous membranes. This kind of transmission is usually within 3', and is NOT considered "airborne" transmission.

"Droplet" transmission can certainly occur with Ebola -- or any disease that spreads via bodily fluids and is present in saliva or mucous. VHFs are not airborne diseases, and a study of one strain where monkeys in adjacent cages sneezed on each other and passed the disease does not make it "airborne".

Being able to get something from having someone sneeze or cough droplets onto you and airborne transmission are very different things.

The quickest way to have a threat of possible airborne transmission of Ebola via mutation would be to not aid Africa in this fight, and let Africa fend for itself, creating an environment where the cases could skyrocket into the millions (due to Africa's infrastructure and inability to deal with the onslaught), thereby increasing the statistical likelihood of the feared airborne mutation -- which, if a foothold were to be gotten in the West as an airborne disease, would truly be a catastrophe worthy of fear and panic.

In reading much of the news coverage, online commentary, and this thread, this article struck me as very relevant:

http://www.nationaljournal

This exactly describes the situation in our company. The Indians have no initiative, no desire to learn things off the clock. They ignore production alerts until they pile up and then look for somebody else to blame. They ignore everything. They are uncreative and cannot come up with any solution to save their lives. I have had to deal with this in various companies over the last 15 years. They are just stupid and useless. They all want us to believe that Indians are smart but where is the evidence? If you research it, you discover that Indians universities are rife with cheating and when they come to universities in the US, they are terrible cheaters.
In short, that is the Indian way and that is one reason that India itself is such a total shithole.

In NYC, we had a terrible problem with Indians in that they never flushed their own toilets and often pissed on the toilet seats, as if they were high caste and expected someone else to do it. Their code was just as sloppy and slapdash. Every company I have worked for eventually gets the picture that they are terrible workers, stupid and not worth even the piddling money they earn. I have been gratified to see them driven out of every company I work for. It's a damned relief.

I didn't see any mention of Cortana or Google Now. Doesn't seem like a very good study if it excludes those. As a consumer, I'd like to know if any voice recognition performed a lot better during driving than the others. Also, I wonder how distracted they were having gear strapped to their heads?

Ford sued by families of hit-n-run victims, Colt sued by families of suicide-by-cops, and McDonald's sued for making kids obese.

Um...
http://articles.latimes.com/20...

By withdrawing advertising over these complaints they are taking a position. They are saying that they support this campaign of harassment against women and anyone else who supports equality and reasonable treatment for both genders.

This!
It is exactly the same thing as when Lowe's pulled their ads from All American Muslim because a bunch of morons were complaining the show was too realistic as in it showed them as just another boring family instead of extremist nutjobs. Lowe's said they pulled their ads because the show was a "lightning rod for people to voice complaints" which is the same thing as endorsing the legitimacy of the complaints. Just as Intel is now endorsing the misogyny of the complaints against Gamasutra.

Big corps can't have it both ways, they can't claim any moral high ground for their "commitments to diversity and equality" and then turn tail and run when it actually means taking a few minor risks. If they want to be seen as completely amoral profiteers, then that's OK. Just don't pretend you are something you aren't - if you make your bed Intel, you are expected to sleep in it.

technically, swimming pools aren't as big and issue as lawns:
http://www.latimes.com/local/l...

Here's some information on lack of 911 service - http://articles.latimes.com/1998/oct/25/news/mn-35939