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Just FYI for those who didn't see the History Channel show "Star Trek: Secrets of the Universe" that some of the engineering scenes were shot at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Here an article about it (link also on NIF home page): ‘Star Trek’ Boldly Goes to Unlikely Real-Life Locations

"The Gateway Pundit" the name pretty much makes clear this is NOT objective news

What was that intellectual coward? Afraid of looking at a website that doesn't fit your view point? That's okay. The story itself was in the daily mail, and it was reported to parliament, by in an independent body, as to the massive failings of the NHS in the UK. Oh and there were protests, they simply weren't covered in the media in either Canada, the US, or most of Europe. Not forgetting that this has been the subject policy of the NHS since the 70's.

Well would you look at that? Just one of hundreds of others.
Or here, or here, and so on, and so on, and so on.

telling people what they can and cannot do with their private property, same for people running businesses,

Yep. I mean, a thousand dead or so is a fair price to pay so that businesses can thrive. Not to mention that it's better being a dead factory worker than some scared little suburbanite living in the US with two cars and a 5 bedroom house.

Totally. Especially if you're one of the rich business owners who can afford to not work in their own factory and hire a private army to guard your assets.

For those who are sarcasm impaired - yes, that was sarcasm. I normally write people like roman off as just crazy, but they seem to be proliferating like cockroaches.

Android is hitting the 1 billion point inside of a few months. They're seeing 1.5M activations per day. 357M Android devices were shipped in 2012.

http://bgr.com/2012/09/12/android-cumulative-shipments-2013-1-billion-units/
http://news.yahoo.com/googles-schmidt-sees-1-billion-android-phones-9-162220903--sector.html

In what way does gold have innate value?

In a rare display of insight, yahoo answers actually explains why the whole premise is absurd...
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120303200416AABp0fx

All of those are relatively small cost items that break down over time and protect much higher value items. For example, if the engine coolant breaks down enough excessive corrosion can ruin an engine.That is very different than replacing a router with a new slightly faster router even though there is no current issue with speed.

Does the differential oil really need periodic replacing?

Yes, as a chemical it breaks down over time reducing efficiency and increasing wear. It also accumulates small metal particles which increase wear. The choice is to spend $50 replacing the differential oil at 60K miles or spend thousands to replace the differential sooner than necessary.

Do you need new drive belts if there's no visible damage?

According to this article, yes.

I was surprised to discover recently that a friend of mine, a staunch Republican, had his Cadillac-plan health insurance cut by his defense-contractor employer and replaced with a bare-bones high-deductible plan.

...and the massive financial cost upheavals induced by Obamacare had nothing to do with that happening, right?

Incidentally, I find it curious that we're in year 5 of Obama's administration (mind you, two of those years gave him full run of Congress), yet there are still progressives blaming presidents who are long gone.

If you think this is about karma, then you fundamentally misunderstand the problem.

The Future of Terrorism: What al-Qaida Really Wants

By the way, ever hear of David Hicks, or Bali? Shayden Thorne? Maybe one or two other things?

Threat from enemy within makes anti-terrorism laws indispensable

Decisions have consequences, even if decision makers sometimes go into denial. In the weekend edition of the Herald, Debra Jopson provided case studies of the 21 men who have been convicted of terrorism-related charges following Operation Pendennis in Sydney and Melbourne and Operation Neath in Melbourne. A large number are of Lebanese Muslim descent.

In his address to the Sydney Institute on January 24, the director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, David Irvine, pointed out that ''of the 38 people prosecuted for terrorism-related offences in Australia, 37 were Australian citizens and 34 were either born here or lived here since childhood''. Clearly home-grown terrorism is a threat in Australia.

The breakdown of the jihadist-related terrorism prosecutions is revealing. In a paper titled Explaining Australia-Lebanon Jihadist Connections, Monash University academic Andrew Zammit broke down the statistics as at September last year. He pointed out that 20 out of 33 men prosecuted ''have been of Lebanese descent''. Moreover, ''while Lebanese-Australian Muslims make up 60 per cent of those charged over alleged jihadist activity, they constitute only 20 per cent of all Australian Muslims''

Australia a target for 'ideological terrorist attacks'

There is more to find if one cares to dig.

The actual numbers vary and vast majority is certainly wrong. However, according to this and this the percentage of solved murders nationally has gone from 90% in the 1960s to less than 65% in 2008. In certain large cities, such as Chicago only 30% are solved, or (according to the article in the Times Record News link above) New Orleans it's only 22% solved and Detroit is 21%. California's solved rate is 55%, with Los Angeles particularly only solving 39%.

By contrast Sweden's solved violent crime rate is 5%, of course very few of those are murders. Canada solves 60% of murders.

You could be 100% right about everything in your post, but public companies most still focus on profit, and profit they do:

Typical short-term thinking, feeling happy because you hit a good quarterly number. Now zoom out. That's terrible, even when you account for compounding dividends.

Over the past 5 years they've had rough parity with the S and P. That would be OK if they were just a utility; but this is supposed to be a technology company. Where was the growth the past 10 years? As an investor, I could have just bought SPY, had similar performance, and slept better at night the past several years.

NWA sang about actively murdering police, and it's legit. This is NOT new, it's not even newsworthy... until this stupid shit becomes fodder for arrests. It's stupid shit, yes but is it really worth arresting on "communicating terrorist threats"? Hell no - that's one damn slippery slope.

Here's a bit more on the charges

Think of the sheer amount of storage, electricity, infrastructure, personal, computing resources and so on that you would need in order to perform this feat. The numbers would be boggling and would account for a significant portion of the worldwide sales of all hard drives, tape back ups etc, etc.

Well, the internet was clocking about 21 exabytes per month in 2010. However, the overwhelming majority of that traffic is redundant; if you remove the redundancy in the data set and then compress it, you're probably looking at less than an exabyte of data over the public internet. You can reduce that further with whitelists; Traffic from Netflix, for example, is probably not going to contain super secret terrorist communications.

So let's say you can cut that down to only record the most relevant 5%. That's about 1 exabyte. How much would that cost? Well, in 2008, they guesstimated this to be about $400 million. A single stealth bomber costs about $2.1 billion; So the yearly storage costs of "the internet" is about 2 stealth bombers. -_-

So at least as far as the data storage is concerned, I think it's well within the government's budget. Now, making that data usable and analysis of it... hooo boy... that's gonna be the bitch of it. But storage? Solved.

They're still being manufactured and new models continue to be introduced. The manufacturers are subtly changing the marketing though, but I'm not sure what you call a $300 10" laptop other than a Netbook.

My opinion is like this, but less antagonistic. Developers go to three places as far as APIs are concerned:
#1. Where the money is. Sorry blackberry you missed that train. iOS or android is going to be far better in that regard.

And surprisingly you (and most everybody else) would be wrong

#2. Where it's fun. Something about business oriented phone software doesn't call me in that regard.
#3. Where it's really, really, really easy to whip out applications. Maybe, but I doubt it.

If you know C, C++, QT, HTML5, Adobe AIR, or JAVA you can code for BB 10. If you don't want to code for BB 10 specifically but you already publish apps on Android it doesn't get much easier than uploading an APK (yes there are limitations)

Source Link for you

Same study also found that "Android Market" was the most used, so it's attractive for volume (once your app is actually visible on the play store--as noted in the link I provided, that's the largest complaint about it).

"In August 1992, as the U.S. presidential election campaign was beginning, President Bush ordered the U.S. military to begin a humanitarian relief airlift to Somalia."

^ Oh, look at that. How interesting.

"In November 1992, after he had lost the election to Bill Clinton, President Bush asked the State Department for recommendations with respect to the humanitarian disaster unfolding in Somalia. The Department recommended that the United State propose a UN-led military enforcement operation to open the way for food deliveries, without the use of American troops, but with the logistical support of U.S. military airlift. The Pentagon expressed the view that it would take at least six months for the United Nations to mount such an operation, and only the United States military had the capability of moving quickly. On the basis of these recommendations, President Bush ordered a U.S.-led military operation to stop the starvation, provided that (1) the Security Council agreed, (2) there were troops of other countries to accompany U.S. forces, and (3) the United Nations take over the relief operation within six months... ...The American-led relief operation was turned over to United Nations control in May 1993, as originally planned. U.S. forces were reduced to 2,500 troops serving in a reserve capacity. Boutros-Ghali appointed retired American Admiral Jonathan Howe to head up the entire operation. With relief supplies flowing and agriculture revived, the UN operation became one of working to restore governmental institutions and basic security. "

^ Oh, look at that. It looks like the decisions you blame on Clinton were actually made by Bush, when Bush was no longer accountable via reelection.

Makes sense, at least in my point of view. I'm a atheist, and I have got into depressions regarding the meaning of life, the un/fairness behind it, a lot of trascendental questions, also a fear of death, which people that believes in a god, with fervor, may not feel, since they may believe there is a life after death, there is a meaning behind everything, that there is a god that loves you, etc.

Except, Googling suicide victims shows (citation citation, there are more) that most of them were religious. Go figure.

I am surprised you got the spreadsheet scandal via Colbert. It has been making news for quite some time. There was an NPR report, one BBC report etc. So please do not assume I am getting all my news from Colbert.

Further, very surprisingly, Stewart and Colbert seem to care for accuracy, despite being a comedy show. Being comedians they are able to laugh off their mistakes on air and apologize by making fun of themselves. But still, they do that when they make a mistake. The one I remember recently is Stewart making up a funny dickish name connected with civil rights, and it turned out to be a real name. The on air apology from him made me wonder, why isn't he called the newsman and the others jokers.

[1] http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/04/microsoft-excel-the-ruiner-of-global-economies/

[2] http://news.silobreaker.com/does-this-spreadsheet-error-invalidate-the-case-for-austerity-5_2266755871209947215

[3] http://news.silobreaker.com/three-umass-profs-expose-flaw-in-harvard-research-that-underpinned-austerity-5_2266756154677788864

[4] http://news.yahoo.com/student-took-eminent-economists-debt-issue-won-095347790--business.html

[5] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22223190

[6] http://chronicle.com/article/UMass-Graduate-Student-Talks/138763/

The IKEA robots have been combined with the cute robots who persuade people to tell them their innermost secrets.

You'll be able to watch yourself on TV blabbing your innermost secrets while sitting on cheap furniture.

It's not like Microsoft is thriving currently...

Actually, that's exactly what it's like.
Citation: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=MSFT+Key+Statistics

In 2002 MicroSoft's gross profits were $24 billion. In 2012 they were $59 billion. Someone somewhere is doing something right.

Investors don't care about gross profits (difference between sale price and cost to make it). They care about net profits (difference between expenses and revenues). I could have gross profits of $100 Trillion, but if my net profits are only $1 then it the company is not doing well financially despite selling high margin products.

For comparison:

1. 2002: Microsoft had net profit of $7.83 Billion USD. source
2. 2012: Microsoft had net profit of $16.978 Billion USD. source

Now comparing the numbers - 24/7.83 = 3.065; 59/16.978 = 3.475. So Microsoft is doing only marginly better in now than it was a decade ago.

It'd be bigger news if he quit for another company, while Microsoft is on the decline it's going to be a very slow death spread across
a decade or two. They've still got considerable assets which will take a long time to bleed out.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bs?s=msft+balance+sheet&annual

Its also a carefully changed edit to the original quote which was either done or ignored by Slashdot's editors deliberately to fan the anti-MS flames here, or their incompetence let through.

The words of the quote are verbatim from the article, however the quote about Microsoft's market share was *not* quoted in the original article. The Slashdot "edit" of putting quotes around it makes it sound like a quote from Peter Klein or Microsoft, whereas its actually a quote from whoever wrote the article at Yahoo.

It'd be bigger news if he quit for another company, while Microsoft is on the decline it's going to be a very slow death spread across
a decade or two. They've still got considerable assets which will take a long time to bleed out.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bs?s=msft+balance+sheet&annual

Are you sure? Can I please get a source on that?

The following links says otherwise. (Though admittedly they are unreferenced and generally not trust-worthy).
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Are you sure? Can I please get a source on that?

The following links says otherwise. (Though admittedly they are unreferenced and generally not trust-worthy).
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Are you sure? Can I please get a source on that?

The following links says otherwise. (Though admittedly they are unreferenced and generally not trust-worthy).
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Are you sure? Can I please get a source on that?

The following links says otherwise. (Though admittedly they are unreferenced and generally not trust-worthy).
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This link someone else posted has a video and a much more comprehensible account of what transpired: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/jean-segura-steals-second-then-steals-first-bizarre-103642855--mlb.html

He never left the base path... so he in fact, wasn't out. More info is available here: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/jean-segura-steals-second-then-steals-first-bizarre-103642855--mlb.html

And since PC sales growth has stagnated

No, not just the rate of growth. PC *sales* are in rapid decline, as in, fewer devices are being sold year over year, and this trend is expected to accelerate.

Quarterly Shipments Drop 14% as Windows 8 Fails to Stem Advance of iPads PC Sales in Steep Decline Intel Corp said its current-quarter revenue would decline as much as 8 percent and trimmed its 2013 capital spending plans, as personal computer sales drop due to the growing popularity of tablets and smartphones.

And about a million others. Average consumers are sick of the PC, and most of their needs can be served well by smartphones and tablets, which are much easier for them to use. Thus, that is where the market now goes. Couple that with a general dislike for Windows 8, and there's very little chance of anything but the bottom falling out, as the world shifts to mobile.

The fingers-in-ears from some quarters reminds me very well of how the 68000-based workstation community reacted to the rise of PCs back in the day: utter refusal to recognize what was happening.

Windows 8 could be about Microsoft recognizing that this would happen anyway, and jump all-in on a tablet/touch-centric strategy.

And since PC sales growth has stagnated

No, not just the rate of growth. PC *sales* are in rapid decline, as in, fewer devices are being sold year over year, and this trend is expected to accelerate.

Quarterly Shipments Drop 14% as Windows 8 Fails to Stem Advance of iPads
PC Sales in Steep Decline
Intel Corp said its current-quarter revenue would decline as much as 8 percent and trimmed its 2013 capital spending plans, as personal computer sales drop due to the growing popularity of tablets and smartphones.

And about a million others. Average consumers are sick of the PC, and most of their needs can be served well by smartphones and tablets, which are much easier for them to use. Thus, that is where the market now goes. Couple that with a general dislike for Windows 8, and there's very little chance of anything but the bottom falling out, as the world shifts to mobile.

The fingers-in-ears from some quarters reminds me very well of how the 68000-based workstation community reacted to the rise of PCs back in the day: utter refusal to recognize what was happening.

So, would you prefer your change in Dollars, or (non-German) Euros?

The Euro has done pretty well against the USD long term, so I'll take Euros.

Would you prefer your NATO liberators arrive in F-14s or Yugos?

Eurofighters please.

Would you prefer your judge US Republican or French (I won't even bother comparing against any Sharia country)?

I like my European Convention on Human Rights thanks. I disagree with a lot of the decisions the French judge might make, but at least I know my human rights will be protected and I won't get thrown in Guantanamo.

Would you prefer your fries supersized, or rationed?

Er... We don't have food rationing here... But normal size is fine thanks. Or "regular" as you say, which to me sounds like they should help with your bowel movements.

Would you prefer your burger Angus or Clydesdale?

Horse, natch.

That's pretty naive. You may have worked out some kind of trust with Google (I certainly haven't), but the majority of Google's product either don't care or don't know. The majority of Google users don't think about how much information Google has on them, how it's used, or how it could be used. Google doesn't have any business incentive at all to be "good," only to not be so obvious about what they're doing that the mainstream takes notice. Google has not been uniformly good. They've already been caught willfully disregarding users' explicit privacy requests (the Safari circumvention).

You say you trust Google. So who's in charge of Google? Your friends Schmidt, Page and Brin hold negligible portions of Google. Check out the major holders: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/mh?s=GOOG+Major+Holders. You're actually trusting Fidelity Investments and Vanguard.

Dishes made from melamine look like plastic, but heat up in the microwave (astonishingly quickly actually). Layman's explanation here. I'd be willing to bet if they are melamine that they're tagged "not microwave safe" somewhere on the dish.

Seem you are the one who failed with your inane speculation.

A Saudi National has been detained. Mostly because he seems to have blown himself up.

Just a bit of advice...if the idiots are agreeing with you, it's time to reassess your position.

An advice that all of us should heed.
Boston police commissioner says no suspect is in custody in marathon explosions

At a press conference Monday night, Boston police commissioner Edward Davis refuted reports that a suspect in Monday's Boston Marathon bombing was at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

"I want to stress one thing," Davis said. "There is no suspect at Brigham and Women's Hospital. There are people that we are talking to but there is no suspect at Brigham and Women's Hospital as has been widely reported in the press. I would like to fix that right now."

beyond a reasonable doubt that the intelligence is given to and received by the enemy,' Lind said."

The original article had the quotation of 'The judge disagreed' BEFORE 'The government must prove,' which confuses the meaning, because it sounds like the judge disagreed with that statement, and one might confuse who said that (herself, and thus oneself) and disagreed with what if they don't read the original article.

"Defense attorneys had argued that proof of receipt wasn't relevant to whether Manning aided the enemy, the most serious charge he faces, punishable by life imprisonment.

The judge disagreed.

"The government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the intelligence is given to and received by the enemy," Lind [judge] said."

More here (original article): http://news.yahoo.com/bin-laden-raid-member-wikileaks-witness-153255044.html

Pay particular attention to the 'Total cash' line item. Apple could build their own fab anywhere they wanted with the amount of cash they have. Why is this an issue? Oh yeah, it's not. More FUD on a slow news day.

They were pretty late to the game, but they do support IMAP.

http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/mail/mobile/mail/imap-01.html

Sorry to destroy your little fantasy, but Google has 60b in short term assets (cash and equivalents):
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bs?s=GOOG+Balance+Sheet&annual

Disney has 39b in stock holders equity:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bs?s=DIS+Balance+Sheet&annual

NBC Universal has 29b in stock holders equity:
http://apps.shareholder.com/sec/viewerContent.aspx?companyid=cmcsa&docid=8075925

So there goes 113% of Google's short-term assets with just those two companies... and they would have to take on 55b in additional liabilities. So they would have 0 cash, no short term assets, and over 75b in liabilities.

In other words.. never going to happen.

Sorry to destroy your little fantasy, but Google has 60b in short term assets (cash and equivalents):
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bs?s=GOOG+Balance+Sheet&annual

Disney has 39b in stock holders equity:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bs?s=DIS+Balance+Sheet&annual

NBC Universal has 29b in stock holders equity:
http://apps.shareholder.com/sec/viewerContent.aspx?companyid=cmcsa&docid=8075925

So there goes 113% of Google's short-term assets with just those two companies... and they would have to take on 55b in additional liabilities. So they would have 0 cash, no short term assets, and over 75b in liabilities.

In other words.. never going to happen.

Looking at a couple laws out of the hundreds and hundreds passed during the time in office is foolish is it not? Pointing at 3 black hairs on a white cat does not make the cat black does it?

From a quick google search, the Cheney connection is simple to find. While not the current owner he was the initial owner and board chief until he stepped down due to pressure from the public. He still makes assloads of money off of them. I believe it would be fair to speculate he consults with them in addition to being a major share holder. Believing otherwise is pretty comical in my opinion.

No, it's a Woody Harrelson documentary. You won't look most likely, it's easier to believe what you are told than to investigate.

No, you are repeating propaganda that someone told you and you believe. That is very different from being factual. I don't accuse you of using empty rhetoric, I accused you of believing propaganda. It's easier to live in ignorance than suffer cognitive dissonance and see reality. That was known as far back as recorded history, and was repeated often by Socrates.

Here's the Pope holding a container with a Higgs boson inside it!

Well, at least that's what I presume he's doing - how else can he give mass?

Good points on priorities. See also on privacy: http://fyngyrz.com/?p=25

I saw that link on slashdot recently in someone's comment, and it is an insightful essay on privacy. There is a sense that a certain degree of privacy is both a human right and a human requirement in our society, and government should have a duty to protect it (even for reasons beyond ensuring the government remains accountable to the people policitcally).

But failing that, we should at least have David Brin's "Transparent Society" where everyone can watch the watchers:
http://www.davidbrin.com/transparency.html

See also my suggestion:
http://pcast.ideascale.com/a/dtd/The-need-for-FOSS-intelligence-tools-for-sensemaking-etc./76207-8319

There are also chilling effects. My house has electric heat, so if I grew hydroponic vegetables instead of running the heaters in winter, I would still get the heat via the lights (thermodynamics) and I'd also get fresh veggies all winter. But I know if I buy a lot of hydroponic equipment, I'll most-likely end up on some government list somewhere to have my door kicked in (see another comment here by someone else about an example of that and our misguided drug laws). Or see:
http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/pinellas-hydroponic-garden-shop-has-attention-of-deputies-searching-for/1204506

So, buy hydropoincs and have your dogs shot as a result of data mining?
"Why do SWAT teams kill all dogs when serving a warrant at a household?"
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110721154445AAWtx8u

Or, see also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Horsemen_of_the_Infocalypse

Although another reasons I don't do it is concerns about humidity and mold, and also finding the space, so that is not the only concern, beyond the cost of the equipment.

Thankfully, in the USA we are nowhere near the total squashing of dissent like was accomplished using the 1930s German gestapo secret police, although they apparently mostly used neighbors turning in neighbors since it was before the internet:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestapo
"According to Canadian historian Robert Gellately's analysis of the local offices established, the Gestapo wasâ"for the most partâ"made up of bureaucrats and clerical workers who depended upon denunciations by citizens for their information.[36] Gellately argued that it was because of the widespread willingness of Germans to inform on each other to the Gestapo that Germany between 1933 and 1945 was a prime example of panopticism.[37] Indeed, the Gestapo -- at times -- was overwhelmed with denunciations and most of its time was spent sorting out the credible from the less credible denunciations.[38] Many of the local offices were understaffed and overworked, struggling with the paper load caused by so many denunciations.[39] Gellately has also suggested that the Gestapo was "a reactive organization" "...which was constructed within German society and whose functioning was structurally dependent on the continuing co-operation of German citizens".[40]
After 1939, when many Gestapo personnel were called up for war-related work such as service with the Einsatzgruppen, the level of overwork and understaffing at the local offices increased.[39] For information about what was happening in German society, the Gestapo continued to be mostly dependent upon denunciations.[41] 80% of all Gestapo investigations were started in response to information prov

Who's "Provocative Action"?

March 29 2013 - Hagel says U.S. has to take North Korean threats seriously

Umm... how is saying we're going to take a country's statements seriously, provocative?

Who's "Provocative Action"?

March 29 2013 - Hagel says U.S. has to take North Korean threats seriously

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said on Thursday that North Koreas provocative actions and belligerent tone had "ratcheted up the danger" on the Korean peninsula, ...

March 28 2013 - US sends nuclear-capable B-2 bombers to SKorea

The U.S military says two nuclear-capable B-2 bombers have completed a training mission in South Korea ...
...
The U.S. says the B-2 stealth bombers flew from a U.S. air base and dropped munitions on a South Korean island range before returning home.

March 26 2013 - U.S. Army learns hard lessons in N. Korea-like war game

The Unified Quest war game conducted this year by Army planners posited the collapse of a nuclear-armed, xenophobic, criminal family regime that had lorded over a closed society and inconveniently lost control over its nukes as it fell. Army leaders stayed mum about the model for the game, but all indications -- and maps seen during the game at the Army War College -- point to North Korea.

March 20 2013 - U.S. flies B-52s over South Korea

The U.S. Air Force is breaking out some of its heaviest hardware to send a message to North Korea.

A Pentagon spokesman said Monday that B-52 bombers are making flights over South Korea as part of military exercises this month.

March 19 2013 - S. Korea, U.S. carry out naval drills with nuclear attack submarine

South Korean and U.S. forces have been carrying out naval drills in seas around the peninsula with a nuclear attack submarine as part of their annual exercise, military sources said Wednesday, in a show of power against North Korea's threat of nuclear attack.

The two-month field training, called Foal Eagle, has been in full swing to test the combat readiness of the allies, amid high tension on the Korean Peninsula in light of a torrent of bellicose rhetoric by North Korea. It kicked off on March 1 and runs through April 30.

March 17 2013 - Troops remember sacrifices of Cheonan sailors

Halfway through the around-the-clock Key Resolve drills Friday, 8th U.S. Army Commander Lt. Gen. John D. Johnson remained full of energy as he underscored that the allied forces were ready to cope with North Korean threats.

...
Despite their hectic schedule, the troops gathered early in the day to pay respects to the 46 deceased crewmembers of South Korean corvette Cheonan, which was sunk by North Korea's torpedo attack on March 26, 2010.

March 12 2013 - First day of SK-US military exercises passes without provocation

Around 10,000 ROK troops and 3,000 US soldiers, including 2,500 reinforcements from US Pacific command in Hawaii, are taking part in the military exercise, which will continue through Mar. 21. Another 10,000 US soldiers will be deployed by the end of this month for the Foal Eagle exercises. Also flown in to participate in the exercises were B-52 bombers and F-22 stealth fighters, which boast the world's highest levels of performance. These two kinds of aircraft can maneuver throughout Korean airspace without landin

Who's "Provocative Action"?

March 29 2013 - Hagel says U.S. has to take North Korean threats seriously

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said on Thursday that North Koreas provocative actions and belligerent tone had "ratcheted up the danger" on the Korean peninsula, ...

March 28 2013 - US sends nuclear-capable B-2 bombers to SKorea

The U.S military says two nuclear-capable B-2 bombers have completed a training mission in South Korea ...
...
The U.S. says the B-2 stealth bombers flew from a U.S. air base and dropped munitions on a South Korean island range before returning home.

March 26 2013 - U.S. Army learns hard lessons in N. Korea-like war game

The Unified Quest war game conducted this year by Army planners posited the collapse of a nuclear-armed, xenophobic, criminal family regime that had lorded over a closed society and inconveniently lost control over its nukes as it fell. Army leaders stayed mum about the model for the game, but all indications -- and maps seen during the game at the Army War College -- point to North Korea.

March 20 2013 - U.S. flies B-52s over South Korea

The U.S. Air Force is breaking out some of its heaviest hardware to send a message to North Korea.

A Pentagon spokesman said Monday that B-52 bombers are making flights over South Korea as part of military exercises this month.

March 19 2013 - S. Korea, U.S. carry out naval drills with nuclear attack submarine

South Korean and U.S. forces have been carrying out naval drills in seas around the peninsula with a nuclear attack submarine as part of their annual exercise, military sources said Wednesday, in a show of power against North Korea's threat of nuclear attack.

The two-month field training, called Foal Eagle, has been in full swing to test the combat readiness of the allies, amid high tension on the Korean Peninsula in light of a torrent of bellicose rhetoric by North Korea. It kicked off on March 1 and runs through April 30.

March 17 2013 - Troops remember sacrifices of Cheonan sailors

Halfway through the around-the-clock Key Resolve drills Friday, 8th U.S. Army Commander Lt. Gen. John D. Johnson remained full of energy as he underscored that the allied forces were ready to cope with North Korean threats.

...
Despite their hectic schedule, the troops gathered early in the day to pay respects to the 46 deceased crewmembers of South Korean corvette Cheonan, which was sunk by North Korea's torpedo attack on March 26, 2010.

March 12 2013 - First day of SK-US military exercises passes without provocation

Around 10,000 ROK troops and 3,000 US soldiers, including 2,500 reinforcements from US Pacific command in Hawaii, are taking part in the military exercise, which will continue through Mar. 21. Another 10,000 US soldiers will be deployed by the end of this month for the Foal Eagle exercises. Also flown in to participate in the exercises were B-52 bombers and F-22 stealth fighters, which boast the world's highest levels of performance. These two kinds of aircraft can maneuver throughout Korean airspace without landin

Under capitalism, the law of supply and demand will drive the value of labor to zero, as the supply will continue or increase, and the need will drop to negligible amounts.

If the cost of labor is zero, the cost of products will approach zero as well, so everyone can have everything they want for free!

The truth is that in most market situations, increases in worker productivity are reflected in market ages. In the US, total hourly worker compensation has been rising with increased productivity, although we don't see that in wage data because the total compensation increases are going into non-wage/non-taxed benefits such as health insurance.

Moreover in China we see reports like "As rising labor costs push manufacturing of T-shirts, jeans and the like out of China, the country has been able to offset that loss by grabbing the high end."

There's a very Old Testament view of crime and punishment in the USA.

Your use of testament is offensive sexual harassment,
the root of testament coming from "the holding of testicles"
during an oath.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080817143757AAC640j

Where's PyCon and Adria when you really need them?!

Today's US high school students are fed politically correct subjects like Islam (which is *very* anti-scientific thanks to the theories of Al Ghazali). Citations:
http://news.yahoo.com/texas-public-school-students-don-burqas-learn-muslim-063126528.html
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/460652.aspx
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cvMIBWoR18

Anyone who knows anything about abrogation knows that Islam is an evil ideology, racist and certainly not a religion of peace. However, if we overlook that fact for a moment what is very significant is the fact that all other religions are pretty much banned from most mainstream schools (certainly Christianity and Judaism are). So you ought to ask yourself, why is Islam being pushed in US schools? Besides the obvious answer, because Islamists (eg. the Muslim Brotherhood) want this, how come the Department of Education allows this? The short answer is that the political Left have an alignment of ideology with Islam - so are indoctrination the youth of America with collectivist nonsense. What they don't understand is that they are sowing the seeds of a generation of jihadis because no one is pointing out the true facts about Islam - it is a curse in every country it touches.

Before the haters start please consider these things: I understand Islam *very* well, and *hate* it as it is against every liberty that free men (and women!) cherish; I am an atheist, no point citing Christian bias (Christianity also bunk just like Islam; however unlike Islam today Christianity way less evil); I have no problem with Muslims themselves, who are generally good people despite the brainwashing they've had in the anti-scientific nonsense of Islam; I'm not from the US, so I don't vote, or back Republicans or Democrats (although the Democrats are far more anti-Constitutional than most US people seem to be aware of).

The US is making colossal strategic mistakes. Warping schooling for politically correct subjects instead of emphasizing maths, tech and hard science is not going to result in US global leadership in the coming decades. US citizens can fix it though - vote out the bastards who are warping your schools. Demand that schools teach and promote Enlightenment values instead of barbaric Sharia. Demand that schools teach more math and science.