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Quoting from http://www.milkeninstitute.org...:

The total value of housing units in the United
States amounts to $19.3 trillion, with $10.6 trillion
in mortgage debt and the remaining $8.7 trillion
representing equity in those units as of June 2008.

Of the approximately 80 million houses in the
United States, 27 million are paid off, while the
remaining 53 million have mortgages. Of those
households with mortgages, 5 million (or 9 percent)
were behind in their payments and roughly 3
percent were in foreclosure as of mid-2008.

So, say 10% of $10.6 trillion was at risk of default, or $1 trillion.

The notional amount of CDS
increased from less than $1 trillion in 2001 to slightly
more than $62 trillion in 2007, before declining to
$47 trillion on October 31, 2008.

So the derivative market inflated the real value of the mortgages by about a factor of 6, and then magnified the size of the possible default problem by a factor of 15.

I'm reminded of a sentence from John Lanchester's book, I.O.U.:

"Even once it's explained, however, it still seems wholly contrary to common sense that the market for products that derive from real things should be unimaginably vaster than the market for the things themselves."

While soccer (football to the rest of the world) probably has less of a problem, it is still a potentially serious issue. Better suggest golf next time. Or Dungeon and Dragons.

Cursive exists because it's faster. This is why the letters are joined; it's not for looks. If it was about the latter, they would still be teaching Spencerian script in North America and similar systems elsewhere. There are other benefits: http://www.nytimes.com/roomfor...

"more distributed" means more land use. The studies on this have already been done: moving from battery farms to free range requires 20% more feed per gram of protein (largely due to the lack of precisely temperature-regulated environments) and on the order of 10x more land use.

10x the land use=huge habitat destruction and increased global warming. We already use 1/3 of the earth's total land area for livestock.

c.f. this or this.

The extra food those chickens have to consume is not "free" in any environmental sense no matter where the chickens are. It costs a lot of energy and land. And human labor is an astoundingly costly input, even just from an environmental perspective.

Your views of the labor market and modern food production are totally disconnected from reality. Your conclusion basically is "the only reason we quit all being hunter-gatherers is because of The Man. Take out a handful of shadowy puppet masters and we'd all go back to happy neolithic paradise." Modernization of food production is the central thing that has raised the standard of living from the stone age to the present day, and economic efficiency is not some kind of bogeyman.

They blinked, and went from #1 to ... well, mostly irrelevant.

Put in perspective this comment is irrelevant.
When BB was #1 (~March 2007) Their subscriber base was less than 10 million. In 2012 when their market share percentage (percentage is the keyword here) had "eroded" to nothing their subscriber base was 80 million yet everyone had already written them off. You see the market for smart phones expanded quicker than BlackBerry but they were still growing year over year until 2013. BlackBerry is the BSD of cell phones. Netcraft confirms it! You can be angry at them for "caving" all you want. They are a business and if they can't do business they are no longer a company. Just ask Aereo.

Didn't they say they solved this in 2001? /s

The best defense against car thieves is a beater.

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.

If you google "renewable energy can prevent climate change" without quotes, you get 70 million hits. If you google "renewable energy cannot prevent climate change", 30 million. Therefore, using the same methodology that was used to prove that Coloradans love them some frog eye salad, there's hope after all, Google!

Read the fucking testimony. Read it. Don't armchair quarterback or Monday morning quarterback without watching the fucking game.

AP document collection
PDF of the transcript of the grand jury proceedings

tl;dr : Wilson was in the SUV. His left hand was struggling with Brown. His OC was on his left. His asp was on the back of his belt and he was sitting on part of it. He couldn't extend it and swing inside the car. He didn't have a taser on him and he certainly didn't have a shotgun loaded with bean bags. He had already been threatened and struck when he drew his weapon, which Brown then struggled to turn on him. He fired through the vehicle's door and window the first two shots at _that_ point.

It wasn't an "arbitrary assault" on Brown, and Brown was using force against the officer.

Funny thing, wind is already cheaper than coal, and solar is close. Also, even if the article wasn't a gross distortion of the report, being a Standford-degreed Google engineer isn't all that. I've known idiots with similar degrees and positions, and geniuses with neither.

I don't play video games but I'm an obsessed chess fan. There was recently a scandal with a player being banned for cheating. They never found the device, but it was assumed he was using a computer to help him win tournaments (and money).

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06...

If you're going to outright make things up and lie on the internet, you need to stick to topics that are harder to validate.

Here's the toxicology report from the St. Louis County Medical Examiner: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/n...

Since you're not much for fact-finding, investigation, reading, or truth, I'll sum up the relevant part: He had THC in his blood and urine because he had been smoking pot.

Here's the summary from the autopsy that Michael Brown's own family had performed on his body by an examiner of their choosing: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/n...

It states that his blood showed evidence of recent marijuana use.

Additionally, he physically had marijuana on him when he was shot: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/n...

I often wonder at the psychology of a person like you who gets so emotionally involved in something that you throw all desire for objectivity to the wind and simply make things up in order to feel better about your decision to support something.

If you're going to outright make things up and lie on the internet, you need to stick to topics that are harder to validate.

Here's the toxicology report from the St. Louis County Medical Examiner: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/n...

Since you're not much for fact-finding, investigation, reading, or truth, I'll sum up the relevant part: He had THC in his blood and urine because he had been smoking pot.

Here's the summary from the autopsy that Michael Brown's own family had performed on his body by an examiner of their choosing: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/n...

It states that his blood showed evidence of recent marijuana use.

Additionally, he physically had marijuana on him when he was shot: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/n...

I often wonder at the psychology of a person like you who gets so emotionally involved in something that you throw all desire for objectivity to the wind and simply make things up in order to feel better about your decision to support something.

If you're going to outright make things up and lie on the internet, you need to stick to topics that are harder to validate.

Here's the toxicology report from the St. Louis County Medical Examiner: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/n...

Since you're not much for fact-finding, investigation, reading, or truth, I'll sum up the relevant part: He had THC in his blood and urine because he had been smoking pot.

Here's the summary from the autopsy that Michael Brown's own family had performed on his body by an examiner of their choosing: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/n...

It states that his blood showed evidence of recent marijuana use.

Additionally, he physically had marijuana on him when he was shot: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/n...

I often wonder at the psychology of a person like you who gets so emotionally involved in something that you throw all desire for objectivity to the wind and simply make things up in order to feel better about your decision to support something.

I'm sure a large reason for this roll-out is the insane amount of money these ambulances can charge. This healthcare system rules! USA USA USA /sarcasm

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12...

...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.).

Like David Krone?

There are some famous ones, of course:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...

Then you can check out this out for a big list:
http://www.theroot.com/photos/...

There are a lot more than that though. For instance, there are two from just this week:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11...
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11...

There are some famous ones, of course:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...

Then you can check out this out for a big list:
http://www.theroot.com/photos/...

There are a lot more than that though. For instance, there are two from just this week:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11...
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11...

A lot of us do. More than you would guess.

Hmm... I don't think that's enough... The problem here is in large the adversarial nature of your justice system.
With cops being allowed to lie during interrogation, the state offering plea bargains if you confess, etc...

Cases like this were someone after hours of interrogations breaks and "admits"
'You’re telling me you have a video, so I guess it happened but I have no memory of it.'

The only reason that guy isn't rotting in prison, is because he could afford 200k in legal expenses.
Lesson being, don't talk to the police in America. Doing so is a liability most people can't afford.

The fact that you are saying this is a testament to the success of the Russian propaganda campaign. Russia's Chechen, Ossetian, and Russian mercenaries shell civilian populations on a regular basis, under the belief that the locals will blame the Ukrainian army (most of them watch Russian state-owned TV channels, which promote the notion that Ukraine is responsible for the shelling). For example, Russia's forces just shelled the town of Debaltseve: http://goo.gl/rsgmF2

Ukrainian media are, well, meh. NYT, however, is a more reputable source: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10...

BEGINNING about 1,100 years ago, what is now California baked in two droughts, the first lasting 220 years and the second 140 years. Each was much more intense than the mere six-year dry spells that afflict modern California from time to time, new studies of past climates show. The findings suggest, in fact, that relatively wet periods like the 20th century have been the exception rather than the rule in California for at least the last 3,500 years, and that mega-droughts are likely to recur.

In medieval times the California droughts coincided roughly with a warmer climate in Europe, which allowed the Vikings to colonize Greenland and vineyards to grow in England, and with a severe dry period in South America, which caused the collapse of that continent's most advanced pre-Inca empire, the rich and powerful state of Tiwanaku, other recent studies have found.

Does Tiwanaku's fate await modern California?

Only true believers in a world without technological development can help California avoid its completely natural droughts now.

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/07...

Soviet constitution which was the basic law of USSR.

As I already taught you in our previous history lesson, there were no provisions for anybody other than the 15 main Republics to break away. Your first argument, once again, is nonsense.

Soviet constitution clearly states that an autonomous republic can only exists within an union republic.

Nonsense (again) Soviet Constitution stated nothing of the kind — because nobody writing it could ever imagine any of the republics to actually ever leave. Their right was listed there to make it easier to pretend, members of the USSR are there volunteerely, but it was all for show. Go ahead, cite the relevant portion of Soviet Constitution — in any language.

If Ukraine is no longer a part of the union, this notion doesn't work anymore

Ukraine didn't simply leave the Union — the union itself dissolved — along with its Constitution. The 15 Republics all agreed to keep their borders.

This is what has caused the war in Abkhasia in 1992.

There were plenty of factors igniting the war in Abkhasia, but the fine (and imaginary) points of the constitution of country, that no longer existed weren't among them. Sure, Russia likes to bring that example up, but it convinces no one other than Russians themselves. Putin much?

Third, here [nytimes.com] is just one of several examples

Wrong. There is only one incident described there. That you chose to use a plural (examples) shows you as not merely ignorant, but a liar too — just what we've come to expect from pro-Russian propagandists Internet-wide. And what was the incident? That in 1995 Ukraine's Interior ministry troops disarmed an illegal private army. States the article you found:

The Ukrainian move this week came after Crimean leaders refused for months to bring local laws in line with the Ukrainian Constitution.

How long would any country tolerate unconstitutional behavior of local lords and the armed thugs in their employ? At any rate, this is not germane in the slightest to your earlier assertions that a) Crimea was entitled to sovereignty; b) Crimea voted for such sovereignty in 1991; c) Crimea's sovereignty of 1991 was "crushed" by Ukraine's military.

All three are demonstrable (indeed, already demonstrated as) falsehoods.

Let me tell you something, kiddo. [...] I went to schools and universities in several countries.

Heh-heh... Judging by your "arguments" here, you must've cheated in all of those schools. Being caught lying must be traumatizing indeed.

I'm not sure medical science understands (well enough) the relationship between carbs/blood sugar/cholesterol and cardiovascular disease.

Well enough for what purpose?

The low-fat diet and food pyramid is probably the worst thing ever foisted on the American people. With 30 years of run-away obesity and diabetes, maybe it's time to admit failure with those recommendations.

The reality is that the people pushing those recommendations knew they were bullshit 30 years ago. How can you say they were a failure? They accomplished their given goal of pushing money towards Big Pharma and the processed foods industry at the expense of the health of the American public. We don't need a smoking gun to understand that there could have been no benevolent goal because the science did not support the recommendations. Since we live under capitalism, we simply follow the money. Who got rich, and at whose expense?

We still let cereal manufacturers pitch their wares as "heart-healthy" - what a joke.

Yes, and meanwhile the milk that goes on the cereal still carries a note about how the FDA has stated that milk from cows given rBGH is just as good as the real thing and you can't tell the difference, even though it's been shown in court since that it isn't and that you can tell the difference, for fear of a lawsuit from Monsanto. It's crony capitalism all the way down.

Soviet constitution which was the basic law of USSR.
First, Crimea turning into an autonomous republic within Ukraine was already contrary to the referendum since restoring the Crimean ASSR would be restoring it as part of RSFSR.

Second, even if we would let my first point slide, Soviet constitution clearly states that an autonomous republic can only exists within an union republic. If Ukraine is no longer a part of the union, this notion doesn't work anymore. This is what has caused the war in Abkhasia in 1992.

Third, here is just one of several examples of using force to keep Crimea on a tight leash through the years. They have tried to become independent several times through the years and were regularly screwed by Ukraine. No wonder they seized the opportunity now.

You fail your history. Have your parents acknowledge your "F" by next week.

Hm, must be a recent and traumatising experience for you, trying to project it on me in such a detail. Let me tell you something, kiddo. I went to schools and universities in several countries. None of these used letters for marks. Have left my parents' basement several decades ago and one day you will grow up and do the same and see the big and very diverse world out there. But until then, get off my lawn.

Good luck with that. The current batch of republicans have been the least productive house in the history.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
http://www.nytimes.com/politic...
http://www.eclectablog.com/201...

Most of the rest of the world that doesn't have their heads up their collective asses thanks the US very kindly for being first in dollars spent on warfare. They're free to spend theirs on welfare programs. After which the people with heads up their asses bitch at the US for not spending enough on welfare programs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/23/world/europe/europes-shrinking-military-spending-under-scrutiny.html

There is precisely one case you're referring to. A decade and a half ago. And they weren't surrendered to the US, they were surrendered to Egypt via the US. After receiving bogus information from Egypt that the two illegal immigrants weren't legitimate asylum seekers but were rather convicted terrorist fugitives and a signed pledge that they wouldn't be tortured (Egypt promptly broke the pledge after they arrived). Here's the aftermath of that:

1) It turned into one of the biggest judicial scandals in Swedish history, receiving widespread protest and condemnation.
2) It led to a reform of not just Swedish but EU-wide extradition law, making it so that a mere promise of not torturing isn't enough, the country has to have a track record of not torturing.
3) The victims were offered by Sweden a large financial compensation package and Swedish residence.
4) Swedish attitudes against the US rendition program (which had worked in conjunction with Egypt on that case) that in 2006 outright had their special forces disguise themselves as airport workers to break into a CIA plane to get the proof they needed to shut down the extradition program through Swedish airspace, creating a major diplomatic incident between the two countries. And how do we know about this incident? Why, Wikileaks of course!

There's a reason why Assange was applying for a Swedish residence permit and moving Wikileaks' base of operations to Sweden when the incidents he's anklagad for occurred. No country has a spotless record, but Sweden has among the highest ranked judicial systems on Earth. Sweden has the world's best whistleblower protections and one of the most restrictive extradition treaties in Europe, flatly forbidding extradition for intelligence or military crimes (which is why, for example, the US couldn't get Edward Lee Howard, the most damaging CIA defector of the Cold War). Assange repeatedly referred to Sweden as his "shield". Funny how Sweden suddenly turned from "shield" to "evil US lackey" when he faced accusations of rape, isn't it? Just ignoring the fact that, if surrendered to Sweden, both the UK *and* Sweden would be able to block an extradition to the US (under EU law on surrender of fugitives), while he had no problem being in the UK with only the UK between him and the US.

Again, funny how that all works.

Every night from 9pm-5am turn off the electricty. Better yet, random rolling blackouts. Let them know what it's like to live somewhere where energy has to be rationed. Kids take it for granted

Or maybe you need to learn something from the kids and move forward :
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11...

It's not like selling the stock is going to hurt the company or the stock value.

Not the stock value, but it can certainly hurt the company. Ending Apartheid is the usual example of a social goal which was aided by divestment. Here's a little blurb explaining how that works.

Not to mention we couldn't really end up in second place - because we were essentially the only runner in the race. The Soviets were years late in starting because they didn't believe we'd actually even stick with it. And even when they did enter the race, it was a half hearted effort with little political support.

That doesn't appear to be true.

Russians Finally Admit They Lost Race to Moon - December 18, 1989

After years of denial by silence and misinformation, the Soviet Union has now disclosed that in the 1960's it was indeed racing the United States to be first to send men to the Moon.

American aerospace engineers returning from Moscow reported yesterday that they were shown for the first time a spacecraft that Soviet engineers told them was ready to go to the Moon in 1968, a year before the Apollo 11 mission made the first landing on July 20, 1969. The Soviets disclosed that repeated failures of a booster rocket delayed the program and eventually caused its cancellation in the early 1970's.

One of the Americans, Dr. Edward F. Crawley of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the lunar-landing craft and Earth-return module he and his colleagues inspected and the descriptions they heard were ''confirmation that the Soviets did have a well-developed lunar-landing program.'' .....

Dr. Young said Soviet engineers told the Americans the spacecraft were ''ready to go in 1968, and they were pressured to hurry up because of the successes of Apollo.'' The mission was held up by problems with the N1 booster, the Americans were told.

completely OT:

folks are trying.... it's very cumbersome

If Women make less money than men, then businesses should hire the women first, since it would lower costs.

Except that assumes there's no institutionalized sexism. In reality women are offered lower salaries and women have to hedge against sexism when negotiating.

The fact that women are expected to stay home and men aren't expected to take much time off for paternity leave is sexism that hurts men and women: men because they don't get to spend as much time with their children and women because businesses assume they are going to take time off to spend time with their children.

An introduction, for the lazy:

http://www.newyorker.com/magaz...
Under civil forfeiture, Americans who haven't been charged with wrongdoing can be stripped of their cash, cars, and even homes.

http://gothamist.com/2014/01/1...
How The NYPD's Use Of Civil Forfeiture Robs Innocent New Yorkers
Any arrest in New York City can trigger a civil forfeiture case if money or property is found on or near a defendant, regardless of the reasons surrounding the arrest or its final disposition.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10...
“Who takes your money before they prove that you’ve done anything wrong with it?”
The federal government does.
Using a law designed to catch drug traffickers, racketeers and terrorists by tracking their cash, the government has gone after run-of-the-mill business owners and wage earners without so much as an allegation that they have committed serious crimes.

>Seems this manuever by the US Gov. wants to solidify his guilt before there's even been a trial.

Seems this is standard practice in the US: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09...

However the world spotlight is on this case.

I love this quote from this article;

“I worry about her whole approach,” said Representative Jason Chaffetz, Republican of Utah, who is the chairman of a subcommittee that on Monday scheduled a hearing on the incident for next week. “I do question the director’s leadership. This is a place where we can never, ever make a mistake.”

This just shows how little Representative Jason Chaffetz actually knows about personal security. Security Agents are human and will make mistakes. Security systems are designed to take that into consideration by designing security in layers. One or more layers may be breached due to mistakes but unless the person being secured is harmed then the system worked. Lets look at what happened.
1. He climbed the fence. While a security layer it is designed to deter entry not prevent entry. Layer worked as designed.
2. He ran across the lawn and was seen by a security agent who sounded the alarm. Security layer worked as designed.
3. He opened the door. Layer failed due to alarm being muted.
4. He ran past startled security guard. Layer failed due to alarm being muted.
5. He ran up some stairs and was tackled by counter assault agent. Security layer successful.

There were probably a few more security layers between that point and the President. The only mistakes I see are the alarm being muted and the door not being automatically locked by the alarm. Would you rather have snipers shooting anyone who climbs over the fence?

Faces change, policy doesn't.

pulled us out of Iraq and Afghanistan

If by pulling out of Iraq you mean sending thousands more troops or if by stating pulling out of Afghanistan you mean leaving troops until the next Administration, then you're correct.

If the oil and gas industry wants to prevent its opponents from slowing its efforts to drill in more places, it must be prepared to employ tactics like digging up embarrassing tidbits about environmentalists and liberal celebrities, a veteran Washington political consultant told a room full of industry executives in a speech that was secretly recorded.

A team called Revive & Restore is in the process of cloning the extinct passenger pigeon.

They're getting close to finishing the passenger-pigeon DNA sequence. That's the easy part though, next they will have to inscribe the genome into a living cell and produce a viable embryo, and from that a living offspring.

Keep in mind the passenger pigeon only became extinct in 1914, which is fairly recent compared to the wooly mammoth.

No, you're citing the incorrect statistic of the article.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05...

Since Comp Sci != Coding, I'm going to say that college is a waste of time and money for most coders. These bootcamps may be both as well, but obviously smaller in degree.

My masters degree has bought nothing to the table other than to get me in the door for interviews. I don't feel anymore qualified than some of the people I supervise who never went to school. But they are restricted from moving up because they lack paper.

The whole idea that you need some liberal arts education to code or do most STEM jobs is utterly outdated. Why does my doctor need to know Shakespeare? Shave off a few years from his education so he doesn't need to amass as much college debt to begin with.

What college has become is a crutch for the public school system for being as shit as it is. And it is shit because it has to pass most people. Just basic bell curve, badgered by parents that can't believe their "preshuss" kid failed.

Here is an entrance exam from Harvard in 1869. Ignore the latin and greek, just how many people could do the math on pg 6,7,8?
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/p...

What makes modern college more odious is all the shit HR departments that are staffed by Liberal Arts (most of the shit anyone here could pass with 10 mins studying a night) majors lording it over the rest with their piece of paper, hence everyone needs one.

College hasn't become a system of enlightenment, it's a system of class and social immobility. Even most of the poor who can get in, become lifetime serfs to their own loans and thus always relegated downward. And everyone spread the propaganda, because like "No one got fired for buying IBM", it's the same mentality for "No one got fired for hiring a degree."

And right, a degree proves something. That you can go to a mind-numbing government indoctrination center for 12-13 years, and right after, hold your plate out and say "4-8 more, please! Oh, and I'll pay full price too."

That deserves some kudos, but it shouldn't make one overlook the guy who went right to work and has 8 years under his belt.

"The government" is not an organized entity with a secret agenda.

In this case some agency is paying shills to post nonsense on the internet, and which agency--be it the FBI, the originators of COINTELPRO, or the CIA, or any other alphabet soup entity--isn't relevant to the fact of those trolls existing. Hence, "the government". If I said it was the NSA, you'd be busy telling me how incompetent the NSA is. Instead you've chosen to conveniently overlook the cooperation of the NSA and its pet, the GCHQ.

But I'll go ahead and tear about your stupid shit about there not being web propaganda, because why not.

Leon Panetta publicly admits to web propaganda efforts by the Pentagon. However, it's a contractor performing the propaganda, which would confuse your poor mind into wanting to associate it with some government agency, since "the government" after all is too much of a summary for you. http://www.usatoday.com/story/...

USA TODAY found that the owners of the top propaganda contractor in Afghanistan, Leonie Industries, had failed to pay $4 million in federal taxes on time despite earning more than $200 million in contracts from the government. Their tax bills were paid after the story was published.

Shortly after USA TODAY made inquiries about the tax bills, fake Facebook and Twitter accounts, as well as phony fan club websites, were set up to disparage USA TODAY reporters. The co-owner of the company, Camille Chidiac, admitted to setting up some of the sites but said he did not use company resources in doing so. He had been suspended from receiving federal contracts because of the campaign, but the military lifted the suspension late last year.

Domestic propaganda legalized in 2013, for the first time since the cold war: http://rt.com/usa/propaganda-u...
Military Announces New Social Media Policy: http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com...
Many months behind schedule, the Department of Defense on Friday issued a new policy that, on the surface, seems likely to expand access to popular social networking sites like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter by troops using military computers.

And most importantly: Revealed: US spy operation that manipulates social media: Military's 'sock puppet' software creates fake online identities to spread pro-American propaganda http://www.guardian.co.uk/tech...

In summary, you're bad at this, and should feel bad.

That's the problem with requiring all these "government approved" mandates that most people don't need - insurance coverage has gone from barely-affordable to even less affordable.

No, it has not.

In the states with the "community rating" system (New York and Washington) the price of insurance went _down_. In the case of NY it went down by 30% and is projected to stay below inflation this year. In case you don't know, "community rating" means that insurance companies can't discriminate you based on your health.

Anyway, Krugman tells it best: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08...

Expand Medicare / Medicaid and be done with it.

BTW, how is the optional Medicaid expansion going? Ah, I see - most of the Rethuglican governors stopped it just out of spite.

What did it accomplish? This http://www.nytimes.com/1996/11.... This is what it accomplished.

cut out the bliss point bullshit that makes your products addictive and everyone will be doing better. fewer people will develop type II diabetes and you will have a viable long term strategy. what's that? you dont want to affect your profits despite being a sound strategy? hmm, sounds like you are the problem.

Some of the factors associated with higher risk were expected, like previous suicide attempts, a history of using weapons and symptoms of severe traumatic brain injury, such as hearing loss. Others were less so, like a higher I.Q., and being older than 26 at enlistment.

Sure they don't sell bombers and guided missiles, but then if we ever get to that point, there won't be much of a military left for the gov't to use against us, because they are US.

LOL. It is so cute when someone who has never served brings out the "they'll never attack US citizens!!! DERP!" line.

Here's how it goes down. First, the military brass will come up with some disparaging name for the citizens who are the new enemy, just as they did for every other war:

"Haji" is the troops' term of choice for an Iraqi. It's used the way "gook" or "Charlie" was used in Vietnam. "From 'Gook' to 'Raghead'"

Next, the citizens (the bad ones) are depicted as subhuman. (The government will also direct the news to depict the new enemy as dangerous psychopaths, so the average citizen will not join in the revolt.)

Final step: 6-round burst, every time. Change barrels every 10 minutes.

The Washington Post has thoroughly reported on federal spying since Snowden. See for example here.

The New York Times has had plenty of spying stories. Furthermore, NYT has recently been key to bringing civil asset forfeiture theft to the public eye. See for example here.

Here is a list of solutions to non-problems of the Internet:

Clipper Chip (1994) - "those terrorists will encrypt where the bomb is!"

Communication Decency Act (1996) - "a.s.b. will destroy our country"

Net Neutrality (2013) - "I think my Netflix is too slow, so let's make some crazy rules about it, even though I have no idea about the realities of modern ISP interconnections and protocols"

This too will pass...

It is already in the regulations that came in to being as a result of a Supreme Court order. We are already delivering through CAFE standards, new point source regulations and the regulations that are available for public comment for existing point sources. There is nothing that congress needs to do. In fact, since Paris in 2015 will just be an update to the already ratified Framework Convention on Climate Change, there will be nothing to ratify for that either. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08...