^^ This ^^. 99.9% of users (special case exceptions being IT and software engineers/developers) should be on locked down User access with special cases made for applications they need to have installed that are specifically approved and setup by the administrator. End of story.

If you are in IT and on one hand complain about having to setup user's access and field calls for software installs and on the other hand complain that Windows is too insecure then you are a fucking baby who needs to get a new job, since securing and installing software IS your job.

It seems very plausible to me. Rats have abundant sources of food in the environments they thrive in (under cities, etc.). Better memory provides no advantage to food gathering as they are already more than saturated. So whether they can remember 10, 20 or 50 x as much it doesn't matter, they'll still find more food than they need to survive.

Similarly, it would have no advantage to reproduction.

The only feasible advantage I can think of is to avoid predators. But as you said, they reproduce so quickly that having a longer memory may very well have no significant statistical impact on their ability to reach breeding age and/or survive any longer than other rats to breed more.

If that presumption is correct and it does occur naturally then maybe this just isn't an optimal mutation for their locality. Doesn't necessarily have a downside, but the upside is statistically negligible in terms of reproduction and survivability.

Or (IMHO) the most probable presumption is that rats are not at the peak of their evolution and this particular trait just hasn't occurred yet or would not be a naturally occurring mutation.

Your presumption that "if they haven't evolved to do this yet then there must be some disadvantage" is inherently false.

To extrapolate further, using your presumption, "if rats were humans they'd have an evolutionary advantage, why aren't rats humans". I would imagine one could list a million "simple mutations", each giving an advantage, that would lead to a rat having all of the genetic advantages of humans. Why haven't each of these in the chain occurred?

Evolution is not necessarily really even about selective advantage or survival of the fittest. It's about who reproduces the most (which is not necessarily the fittest or most advantaged). In fact, evolution only seems to really accelerate in extreme conditions.

Anyways, I'm going on too far, but I reject your presumption that a genetic advantage must necessarily have a disadvantage if it isn't naturally occurring.

That's the "no-fly" list, which is not the "watch-list". However, those ON the no-fly list are also on the watch-list. Those on the watch-list are mostly not on the no-fly list.

Pot, meet kettle. Stereotypes are bad.

As long as the list is private and completely internal to the FBI (which is the impression I get), I see no issue with it.

There will likely be several facebook groups, twitter groups and websites devoted to this where people will send in camera phone pics + coordinates (not that I have any fucking idea how to come up with the coordinates, someone will have to post a tutorial somewhere). The submission format is also very standardized (DDD-MM-SS).

I imagine someone could parse these groups and come up with probabilities based on match duplication, etc. on the day of the event.

My guess is nobody gets the 40k though.

I think they just want to find out how fast someone can hack into their network at DARPA HQ and locate the coordinates of all the balloons.

Have you ever taken a personal note before? Or as a better example, ever used the scientific method?

I have a hypothesis "this guy may be a criminal because he did something criminals usually do", I investigate to determine yes (crap, this guy is building bombs), no (false lead) or undetermined (nothing conclusive but still suspicious). If yes, bust him, if no remove from the list, if undetermined leave on the list.

I'd think they were retards if they DIDN'T have a list.

Yea... and the FBI is trying to find terrorists who plan on killing American citizens and people who plan on raping children. Big fucking difference. Increasing their effectiveness and ability to find actual criminals through citizen participation over patriot-act-esque big brothering is a good thing.

LOL... exactly... just because your interests are different doesn't mean that those things that someone else idolizes and escapes with are any better or worse than those things that you do.

*Laugh* - Life is pseudo-life. About 99% of what I do is an escape from reality really. But what is reality, sit there and do nothing but stare at a wall and you're in reality?

Presumably being a geek, you play video games right? Or have played D&D? Or like movies? Or dream?

The first 2 examples you gave have nothing to do with "pseudo-life", they just have to do with someone making presumably poor decisions based on emotion rather than logic. But if their decision brings them a sense of happiness (which is all success or happiness really is, whatever it's defined as for you, maybe it's more important to them that their local team wins than them having good school systems), was it really the illogical decision? In your set of logic, yes, in their scope maybe not?

Ahh, we could spin on this for hours. There's no right or wrong answer in politics and societal norms, which is what this is really about.

That said, being a geek, I hope we get more respect, paid more and are considered more attractive (although I seem to get a lot of respect from people now, that has never been a huge issue really?) and I think the author has some good points.

I just disagree with your sentiment about "pseudo-life" :).

I wouldn't even categorize the Tesla as "short distance", it is more "medium distance". It travels about the same distance as most cars do on a single tank of gas. How often do most people really use up an entire tank of gas in one day, I don't have the stats but I'd bet my shirt they are the exception. The convenience of not having to stop at the gas station once a week would be amazing as well.

Well, for ME, this car IS general purpose. I haven't driven more than 150 miles in a single day in probably 4 years. And when I did, it was because my job required me to and I was getting paid by the mile or had the option of renting.

If you are planning on hauling your family across multiple states (or longways across a really big state) then this vehicle definitely isn't for you. However, I can't imagine it costing that much to rent or just buy a cheap van and keep it in the garage for the times you do.

The price tag is way too high though, I'm looking at the Chevy Volt or a similar series hybrid car in the next 5 years or so to be in a good price range.