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How?

A switch to the metric system will confuse a lot of americans who have used the imperial system of measurements for their entire lives.

Is there really a problem with "unstandardized" container sizes? How exactly do these problems manifest themselves?

How will a different unit of measure "save a lot of money"?

Thinking the key to building a successful death star relies on using metric bolts and nuts is silly. Trabants were built using the metric system, and they were crap.

Stop propagating the myth Steve Jobs started that few people bother to test first hand.

Here's some articles from people who actually USED Windows 8:

Surprisingly, touchscreen laptops don't suck

Touchscreens and the Myth of Windows 8 ‘Gorilla Arm’

Some doctors in China have an even better treatment than the camp: http://healthland.time.com/2012/12/13/controversial-surgery-for-addiction-burns-away-brains-pleasure-center/

The success rate is not impressive and neither are the side effects. DBS at research stage is just as effective with fewer side effects because there is no wholesale destruction. Even conventional treatment has a good success rate and without these risks. This is nothing but unethical research in universities and hospitals performed by ambitious and unethical people experimenting on human beings. Add quack cash doctors exploiting desperate people and the disgusting mix is complete. Better article here: http://healthland.time.com/2012/12/13/controversial-surgery-for-addiction-burns-away-brains-pleasure-center/

Dr. John Adler, professor emeritus of neurosurgery at Stanford University, collaborated with the Chinese researchers on the publication and is listed as a co-author. While he does not advocate the surgery and did not perform it, he believes it can provide valuable information about how the nucleus accumbens works, and how best to attempt to manipulate it. “I do think it’s worth learning from,” he says. ” As far as I’m concerned, ablation of the nucleus accumbens makes no sense for anyone. There’s a very high complication rate. [But] reporting it doesn’t mean endorsing it. While we should have legitimate ethical concerns about anything like this, it is a bigger travesty to put our heads in the sand and not be willing to publish it,” he says. cite.

And they have ways of dealing with addicts over there http://healthland.time.com/2012/12/13/controversial-surgery-for-addiction-burns-away-brains-pleasure-center/

While meanwhile in the west people are enslaved by Google and Facebook...

Ok, you need to come down off whatever you're on just a bit. We're talking about taking a pistol (semiautomatic, fires a bullet each time you pull the trigger) against a rifle (semiautomatic, fires a bullet each time you pull the trigger). Even if the misinformation you're spouting had a basis in fact, I'd still choose a pistol (of any type) against someone shooting at me with anything. A slim chance of survival is still better than none. The media is slanting this in a most disgusting manner, if you're going to play at being informed I'd suggest you try discovering the facts first.

I hope the families of the slain sue and are successful in getting bazzzilions of dollars out of the idiot Americans.

So the Sikhs that were killed in the wake of 9/11 as "blowback" should sue the Taliban and Al-Queda?

Man, "justice" sure is fucked up where you're from.

Oh yeah, and Americans are idiots.

Ah yes, it is the entire American populace that are idiots. Yep, we were all part of everything you just said. Not one of us opposes it. All of us act together uniformly. No one protests. Man, for people who like to criticize Americans as racist bigots, they sure could look in the mirror from time to time.

The ACLU has a history of filing amicus on the side of the NRA in court cases where gun rights as protected by the 2nd amendment come into play. Remember the most recent court case over licenses to buy in DC that affirmed a right to buy firearms for the home for non-felons? No one ever says anything about the ACLU backing that case, even while it was happening. The useless right-left scale aside, those of use that believe in civil rights do not pick and choose which rights be believe in and support.

Link is to Time magazine article on the two most recent cases I am referring to that both went to the Supreme Court of the US. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2001003,00.html

Sure, but not by Gorbachev. He did not foresee it, he got nothing from it except hate, humiliation and some 'honorary awards' from western institutions. He is responsible for millions of lives lost in ethnic conflicts that ensued after collapse. Look, the last leader of 1/6 of a planet landmass did this http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2012633_2012652_2012665,00.html for money!

Running out of it in an environment where it costs what it's worth, which is about a penny a hit, won't cause anything but reaching into a pocket and taking another hit.

You obviously know nothing about addiction and quitting. The main component of addiction is the challenge of acquisition. Take that away and the whole business makes less sense. Gainsay and I'll show ye the alcohol wet houses in the US!

It's Obama trying to have it both ways....his modus operandi on everything but expanding Bush's Unitary Executive power grabs. There he's balls to the wall on telling the press or Congress to fuck off if they suggest the power of the presidency should be limited.

Of course, talking out of both sides of your mouth is Obama mocked Hillary for during the '08 primaries, where she tried to have it both ways on giving drivers licenses to undocumented immigrants. Sort of like how he mocked McCain for wanting to tax your health care benefits, only to strongly back excise taxes in his Health Insurance Profit Protection Act.

If Republicans were slightly less corrupt and incompetent, they could have mopped the floor with Obama this year.

Is that why they had cops with full-size AKs on every street corner in the tourist quarter last time I visited (which was in 2005)?

Have you visited New York lately?

...because the city blocks surrounding it would be most accurately described as something you'd expect to see in the aftermath of a bombing run on the city.

Yeah, we don't have that problem.

Numbers are funny things, especially self-reported ones.

Yes. The CIA and the United Nations are colluding with each other to make places like Egypt, Iran, and Iraq look better.

the only guarantee any country can have of sovereignty, for some decades now, is nuclear capacity

I agree - every two-bit, four-bit or eight-bit nation state must pursue a nuclear program regardless of the cost in terms of international trade of humanitarian aid. The sovereignty of Canada, Australia, Mexico, Japan, Brazil and the rest of South America, most of Africa, all the Scandinavian countries and southern Europe, and Switzerland have been teetering daily on the brink for decades. How is it that these non-nuclear nations have not yet been annexed by the nuclear powers and overrun with McDonalds drive-throughs or Trabant factories? Or maybe bagel shops instead?

Wow, you really eat this shit up.

Every single point I made (with the possible exception of the Russian government actually having control of their own intelligence agencies - I'd call that one open to debate) amounts to pure documented fact. Not speculation, not even stretching the data to fit an information vacuum.

Though, I suppose you might not remember the Iran Contra affair. You might not have flown in the past 10 years. You might not read Slashd... Oh... No, I guess you do. Huh, funny that.


You can list as many of the negatives as you wish but your argument has no merit if you only include those.

Remind me which branch of the US government controls the GCSB (in case you need a cite for that one, click on the FP link for this very thread) or the KGB? Or hey, we can throw the Mossad in there if you like. I could go on, they pretty much all have a list of publicly known sins a mile long. The US only dominates the list out of sheer volume, not as anything special.


We do have the right to [sue] AT&T et al, actually.

No, we don't, actuallydon't . I am not really sure where the whole travel point is going as it is patently incorrect.

Funny, the US Department of State seems to know what I meant. Perhaps you should re-read it if you didn't get it the first time?

How about you people explain why the only studies showing any links were to due to fraud and any legitimate study shows no links?

What next? Jenny McCarthy and the doctor who carried out the fradulent study that started this madness get called as expert witnesses?

I'm not wrong. Exceptions don't make the rule.

So I can't point to any stats to prove you wrong.

And you don't even have proof that I'm wrong.

The facts are in my favor: businesses are leaving, this is verifiable. Might even call it common knowledge (that i.e. Apple took most if not all of its manufacturing to Foxxcon).

Almost half of the population is living paycheck to paycheck. They can't afford to leave, not without showing up in reports of say, refugees or illegal immigrants entering other countries. That (refugees and illegal immigrants) would indicate that people are leaving because of tyrannical government - people are so fed up that they'd be willing to become refugees just to escape.

This... this is akin to having Excalibur. Kim Jong Un has a freakin' UNICORN LAIR. No wonder he's in the lead for Man of the Year.

Keeping someone in jail should not be done for the purposes of punishment. Compare the conditions of, e.g., Scandinavian prisons to those of the US. In one, the focus is not on punishment, but on rehabilitation. As such, prisoners have access to TVs and other amenities in their cells. See this 2010 article from Time.

And yes, I do think that imprisoning someone if the reason is not to prevent them from committing more acts against others is uncivilized. Which sort of rules out, I suspect, the entire world as being civilized to my standards. Then again, I suspect I'm even more libertarian than most people who claim membership of a Libertarian party. Though I'm a left-libertarian, not a right-libertarian.

And I do say there is a difference between punishment and torture. In Manning's case he has been tortured. Pure and simple.

http://www.beyondajoblessrecovery.org/2009/11/16/can-unions-and-strikes-still-make-a-difference/index.html
====
Here is an article about how workers and strikes in a recession:
"Europe's Strikers More Scarce in the Recession"
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1914328,00.html

"In the U.K., the Office for National Statistics says there were just 756,000 working days lost to strikes last year, way down from the million or so days lost in 2007. As of May, the figure stood at just 32,000 days for 2009. Even assuming an upsurge in the summer, that's a long way from the kind of industrial mayhem Britain saw in 1979, when almost 30 million days were lost to strike action. It's a simple case of reasoning, experts say. "When workers feel confident in their job security is when they are more likely to strike," says Gregor Gall, a professor of industrial relations at the University of Hertfordshire."

In general, this is part of the ongoing downward spiral for labor that is just getting started. As automation increases, like through better robots or 3D printers, and as improved designs come along that take less effort to put together or last longer, there will be even less need for paid labor. So, the people who still have jobs will be afraid to strike or in other ways rock the boat. So, they will let themselves be exploited more and more just to keep food on the table. Because worker usually get fringe benefits, and because it takes money to hire and train workers, even as unemployment rises, it makes economic sense for companies (up to a point near collapse) to work the workers they have even harder, for less money, than it does to hire more workers, even at low wages. Increased worker suffering (including by worker's families and communities) becomes just one more negative externality that business owners can pass on to society, socializing the costs of their business while privatizing the profits.

Possible counters to this trend include:
* government regulation of working conditions including hours (like in France);
* a basic income so that workers have a choice not to work (forcing employers to make jobs better to attract workers); and
* companies realizing that overworked workers produce products with lower quality or less innovation, and so voluntarily limiting hours and improving working conditions.

So, it would seem that strikes will be less and less likely in the future as a general trend, although it is possible that one big national or global strike might happen at some point when people realize that major positive social change is going to be now or never.

Any strike will be pointless in the long term unless it is about structural reform in our economy and society. Just striking to get slightly higher pay (or just to keep what one has) or to get slightly better benefits, which has been useful to many groups in the past, is not going to be very effective in the long term if these other trends continue towards decreasing the value of labor relative to automation and improved design.

What good is it to get more money and more benefits for fewer and fewer remaining workers while they wait for their own jobs to be lost to automation and improved design? Yet, this has been the strategy of most unions for many years. The failure of the US American automakers in Detroit shows how, in the long run, unions creating private welfare states within individual corporations does not work well anymore for union members or anyone else in society these days. The companies become less competitive relative to other companies that pay less and embrace automation and better design, and so they fail, taking all the union jobs with them.

We are possibly past the point where union actions related to single companies make much sense. If unions are to have any major role i

I was expecting something that really mattered, like... the end of all matter, according to Time magazine (and others) in 2008. http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1838947,00.html

Zynga does.

Even better, you can print in chocolate. Of course, that might not be a habit you would want to induce in "the lady", as GPP puts it.

I think "Linux on the desktop" is an interesting analogy for Bitcoin, but it's not the only one available. If Bitcoin follows the trajectory of desktop Linux then it will grow and grow until it saturates its niche market, at which point usage will level off. Unable to tackle the challenges needed to advance to the next level, it will become something of a calling card for certain communities but will just be a curiosity to the rest of the world. The underlying ideas or philosophies, though, may have influence out of proportion to its usage (eg, Android being open source was certainly heavily influenced by Googles experiences with Linux).

That's one scenario. Another is that rather than being similar to desktop Linux, Bitcoin is more similar to the web. Bitcoin is about 3 years old, but really it's only more like 2 years old because for the first year it languished in absolute obscurity. If you think back to the internet in the early to late 90s, the net was this technically complicated and intimidating beast. You needed a crazy thing called Trumpet WinSock, and then you needed an ISP (only a few small ones existed) and then you needed even more software and often it just wouldn't work at all, and when it did there was no friendly start page or anything, you just had to know where to go. The de-facto standard for "normal people" was CompuServe and AOL. Movie trailers had AOL keywords at the end, not web addresses.

Despite that the web eventually triumphed and became the standard, replacing the sophisticated and well organized corporations that previously reigned supreme. Why? Well, it was an open and international system where everyone could take part. The protocols were documented, anyone could write software for it. Because it was open that's where the research was taking place. Then the existing institutions started to provide limited forms of web access alongside their walled gardens, lending it legitimacy. It's easy to forget that back then the net was frequently painted as swamped with immoral, degenerate or even illegal activity. In 1995 TIME Magazine ran with a cover story claiming the internet was completely dominated by porn, based on statistics about USENET that later turned out to be completely bogus. Parallels with some contemporary stories around Bitcoin are easy to see.

Anyway, there's no guarantees of success and either scenario is equally likely, IMHO (in the absence of a dystopian crackdown by governments that simply ban any financial system they cannot exert total control over).

Oh, please. The mainstream media never got on Bush's ass 24x7 about *anything*.

Should we welcome you to America, or out of a coma?

3,000 Deaths in Iraq, Countless Tears at Home
At Grim Milestone, White House Says Focus Is on Success in Iraq
A Grim Milestone: 500 Amputees
Iraq war casualties: We're nearing another grim milestone; vigils planned nationwide

Three weeks before the 2006 midterm elections gave Democrats control of Congress, a shocking study reported on the number of Iraqis who had died in the ongoing war. It bolstered criticism of President Bush and heightened the waves of dread -- here and around the world -- about the U.S. occupation of Iraq. --- Data Bomb

(I'm pretty sure FDR didn't have to fight this kind of press as well as the Axis powers.)

Waterboarding / "torture" was another popular one for a while, of course it was only three people, it stopped 10 years ago, it was legal at the time, the US does it to its own pilots and special forces, and so on. There often seems to be far more vitriol directed against the United States for waterboarding three terrorists than against Al Qaida and its affiliates for killing tens or hundreds of thousands of people.

Exclusive: Only Three Have Been Waterboarded by CIA

A Grim Milestone Ignored - Thursday, November 15, 2007

The establishment media is seemingly obsessed with “grim milestones” in the War on Terror, as the Associated Press reminds us this past weekend. But in the next week those same establishment media outlets will probably stand mute when yet another “grim milestone” is reached – the10,000th attack by Islamic terrorists and militants since 9/11, which is responsible for approximately 60,000 dead and 90,000 injured

The Wired article doesn't provide it, and makes it sound like the proposition passed with an 81% Yes vote because people want to track registered sex offenders' Internet activity.

The proposition was billed as the human trafficking and penalties initiative. Its main focus was on increasing penalties for those convicted of human trafficking (mostly kids and women into prostitution). That's why it passed with such a high percentage of Yes votes. The part about sex offenders' Internet activity was a single sentence buried in the middle of the voter pamphlet's summary description, so probably was glazed over by most voters.

I was baffled why something whose main provision seemed like such a no-brainer was even a proposition. It sounded like something the legislature should've been able to pass in 5 minutes. So I did a bit more research and dug up this article explaining why it may not be very helpful, counter-intuitive as that seems. That's something you have to be careful of with these ballot propositions - if it sounds like a simple Yes vote, you need to ask yourself, "What's the catch? Why hasn't the legislature passed this already?"

"the new prototype appears to have borrowed features from the U.S."

It's very likely that China stole the technology for this fighter via cyber attacks to facilitate data exfiltration activities over the past decade, such as during the Titan Rain era. China is working diligently to position themselves as the next hyper-power on the planet. Stealth technology is critical for force projection where China seeks to dominate other countries, knowing the U.S. may enter a new Cold War and supply the middle-state pawns with surface-to-air missiles.

The real zinger is going to be stealth drones launched from carriers in the near future.

Regarding Titan Rain and Chinese cyber attacks on the USA:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1098961,00.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_Rain

Wow, for someone with such experience you seem to not know much about boats. Aluminium is quite a common material to make boats with, just google "aluminium boat" if you need more info.

I am not the person you're replying to, but I did google for aluminum ships. This was the first hit in my list.
Quoting the article:

You can't make this stuff up: the Navy concedes the first vessel in its latest fleet of warships - the 18-month old USS Independence (not to be confused with the late aircraft carrier sporting the same name) - is suffering from "aggressive" corrosion.

``Above Their Own Laws'', in Time magazine.

And don't forget how law enforcement divisions always review their own problems and always seem to come to the conclusion that the application of force was justified. Sure, that's an unbiased and reasonable conclusion to always come to, right?

If you actually looked at most of those companies -- they are hardly american. Petronas, for example, is Malysian. Russia and China got most everything. I hate to break it to Al Jazeera's worldview, but those are not exactly "Western" countries. US companies got nothing except a few subcontracts contracts to set up and operate pumps (but not to sell the oil). Hey. But don't let facts get in the way of your worldview. Gah! Oil! Rah! Capitalism evil! Bush Satan! Ever stop to think that maybe... just maybe... the simplest explanation is the best and the most likely scenario as to why we went to Iraq is simply because Saddam played chicken with a freight train and got run right over, not because of Oil or anything else. Tell me. Is it beyond the realm of possibility for the government to make a mistake? What's more likely -- that -- or a massive conspiracy that somehow resulted in accomplishing none of the alleged goals save destroying America's reputation worldwide?

MS has been doing crazy shit for as long as I remember. As long as people buy PCs, they''ve got a guaranteed revenue stream. That's the difference between MS and Nokia: nobody ever had to buy a Symbian phone just to make a phone call.

When you can spontaneously create life from raw materials, in a lab, let me know and I'll believe you, until then I'll keep up with my current belief system.

It's not beyond the realms of science...
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1990836,00.html

When a man who died 2012 years ago spontaneously springs back to life, let me know and I'll believe.
When you can provide *proof*, using scientific methods (you are a scientist aren't you?), that the earth is 6,000 odd years old, let me know and I'll believe.

Until then, I'll keep up with my current lack of belief...

If it hits the wrong target, no civilian casualties.

You killed my World of Warcraft! You bastards!

We already did that. And we kept the money too.

Debates are a way to get a feel for the speaker without (fully) prepared speeches and under a bit of pressure.

It would seem that they learned to work around that. Based on the recent memorandum of understanding, they are trying to minimize the randomness and unpredictability of an actual debate

Moreover, they are so often not answering the question, spouting a tangential list of "zingers" instead, that it is getting embarrassing. Moderators/interviewers should interrupt and say "Sir, you are not answering the question, please start again". I do it when I grade homework/exams, why can't moderators do that?

It's an automatically dialed call that plays a recorded message. Common sources include:
- Scam artists. A classic one is claiming to be from "cardholder services", and if the victim calls back will attempt to get the victim to divulge personal and banking information. These are illegal, but it's hard to find out who's dialing.

- Political campaigns. These are very very common in early November in places that can determine major elections. The idea is to use robocalls from a nominally independent group to put out a message that you want voters to hear but not to have your candidate say on TV. There's now also a serious risk of these backfiring, so there have also been instances of campaigns pretending to robocall as the other campaign.

Hey man, settle down there... I know Harry. He's a good guy. Read him here: http://techland.time.com/category/technologizer/, or on G+.

>Sure you can. That the government created the National Helium Reserve and its attendant bureaucracy for dirigibles and is still holding onto it in 2012 is ludicrous,

It's like you totally missed the story about the helium shortage affecting MRI scanning.

http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/08/23/theres-a-helium-shortage-on-and-its-affecting-more-than-just-balloons/#the-government

--
BMO

Yes, one must be careful, but I would still say that internet access is a right or is quickly moving toward becoming one

When living your life often requires internet access, then it becomes a right. If everyone had provided the non-internet equivalent of the daily services, then maybe it would be a luxury

It's a right. The US Govt already provides free cellphones to low-income consumers. Phone service in the US is no longer a luxury, it is a right. Mobile broadband should be the same way.

If PETA thinks that Pokemon is bad, I would like to direct them to this so-called game that makes a sport out of tipping cows! I would like to encourage PETA to protest my game in the most vocal way possible, because, damn, it's tough getting free press for a gambling game. Get it on Slashdot, on Gamespy, on CNN and on Time Magazine's site. Please? PETA? I'll give you a soy cookie!

that's why Detroit is still the bustling metropolis the architects dreamed about...

Since all my female friends seem to be going dike?

They're doing that 'cause they don't need men on the planet anymore:
Human Sperm from Stem Cells

This is all about Stratasys PR department not wanting a product they market to creative types to be linked in the public mind with ... firearms.

Mod parent up. The "illegal" angle here is being waayyyy over-discussed, but it's really just an excuse for good PR.

It's a good legal move too. Whenever a radically new technology becomes mainstream enough to enter the public consciousness, the "bad" uses are discovered and fretted about very early on. (Remember this? It almost kept me off the internet completely in high school.) Too much public outcry early on might result in some preemptive legislation for the 3D printer industry, and I imagine Stratasys would like to avoid that.

The great thing about the Onion story is that Iran's Top News Agency (Fars) actually believed it!

http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/10/01/irans-top-news-agency-reposts-onion-article-as-fact/

Well, Saddam Hussein was planning to switch to the Euro....

He was also planning to stockpile weapons of mass destruction. We all know how that turned out.

So if someone refuses to accept my dollars I can call in an airstrike on them?

Well, Saddam Hussein was planning to switch to the Euro....

Horatio Alger, is that you?

Your math sucks.

Investment has always been pretty speculative, so it's easy to pick on. It also involves "real" wealth -- the kind you nor I will ever have. You can look at Taleb as being a dumbed-down version of Mandelbrot (the fractal guy) and his work on market analysis.

You might also check out what these guys [pdf] discovered about CEO talent.

If you could learn how to succeed from reading a book, or listening to a motivational speaker, then everyone would be successful -- meaning no one would be. If it were some innate ability like IQ, then 'success' would follow a similar distribution pattern. This is not observed.

You live in a world that is chaotic, from top to bottom. It's like weather systems, except the laws aren't immutable. You can't predict weather with any certainty, how can you claim to have a formula for success? What could that be based on, if not sappy-headed romanticism?

Anonymous because otherwise I might be in danger of reading more of the mental vacuities that you dribble onto your keyboard.

And this is how it will remain until the bribe I mean the interest free financial bailout monies are forwarded. At which point the subject will be revisited.

Why Portugal May Be the Next Greece

You do realize the first image on that site (north america labeled as Australia) is a total fabrication, right? I mean if you're just going to outright lie about Apple Map problems people are really going to think you are crying wolf.

If you think Google is going to save you, you might want to think again. It can't even find an Arby's when you need it, much less this other stuff:

http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/11/05/21st-century-war-google-maps-error-leads-to-nicaraguan-invasion/
http://www.maproomblog.com/2010/09/google_maps_errors_and_disappearing_cities.php
http://www.maproomblog.com/2010/06/more_fun_with_google_maps_errors.php
http://www.maproomblog.com/2010/05/saint-pierre_and_miquelon_are_apparently_underwater.php
http://www.maproomblog.com/2010/06/more_fun_with_google_maps_errors.php
http://www.maproomblog.com/2010/05/saint-pierre_and_miquelon_are_apparently_underwater.php
http://www.firegang.com/google-maps-showing-errors
http://www.martijnbeijk.com/google-maps-errors-caused-by-teleatlas
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jjdelc/92865795
http://www.nodalbits.com/bits/google-maps-new-changes-new-errors

When a strong AI is developed, radical change will happen, for better or worse. "2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal"