Someone mod parent up, please. An aggressive personality might be necessary for, say, a car salesman, but in many professions (especially the sciences!) the tendency to demand more pay has nothing to do with a worker's actual value to the company.

You know what bugs me? The smart asses who demean those less educated than themselves without contributing anything useful to the conversation.

Try having a conversation about democracy without using the word "democracy". For bonus points, try doing it without referring to any particular government (if the word were outlawed, the chances you'd be living under a democratic government are pretty slim). Sure, it's possible, but it's a hell of a lot harder - especially if the person you're trying to communicate with isn't particularly well educated.

I work in the meat department of a Real Canadian Superstore. Every day we throw out hundreds of dollars of expired, spoiled, or otherwise damaged meat. A lot of it's probably still okay to eat, but we're obligated to dispose of anything we're not 100% certain about. Heaven forbid someone get sick and sue, after all.

Recently, the rules have become even stricter. We now throw out products half a day before they expire, and all the discounted product is pulled off the counters at noon (before many bargain hunters even get to the store). Also, any meat that's discoloured now gets thrown out immediately without being discounted at all. Last week, on multiple days, the garbage in my department totalled well over $1000.

We waste a ton of water and electricity, too. It's not a bad place to work (in my particular store and department), but the scale of waste our superiors obligate us to produce really sickens me sometimes.

So we should be happy with the (arguably) lesser of two evils?

Somebody mod this guy +1 Funny, ha.

Perhaps, but that's not all marijuana does. Marijuana can also be used to enhance creativity, increase productivity, improve focus, increase stamina, and improve cognitive functions in certain ways. It can be used to treat depression, anxiety, pain, epilepsy, and psychosis. It can do all sorts of useful things, in fact -- it's all in how you use it.

Switching production from tabacco to marijuana would be a huge effort that would require the cooporation hundreds of people, many of whom probably don't think highly of pot. It's not a small deal.

Are you trying to imply that he would have accomplished more if he hadn't been exposed to marijuana? From where do you derive that assumption?

I've always had a terrible memory and a tendency to space out, so I had a really hard time with school. People were always asking me if I was high ... however, I didn't actually touch weed until I was in my early twenties. Honestly, I wish I had started smoking it earlier. As a sufferer of anxiety/depression/suicidal impulses/a bunch of other crap it makes my life better in a million different ways, and it would have made school a hell of a lot easier.

Coincidentally, I recently had a particularly bad spate of depression during which I was pretty much incapable of "magical thinking." It was awful, because without it there was absolutely no reason to live. Why read or play games? It's pointless unless you're having fun, and "fun" is not a wholly rational pursuit. What's the point of doing anything? To live longer, to have more material possessions? It doesn't really matter. Nothing does until you decide it matters. I'm on medication now, and feeling much better. Yesterday I ate a hot dog and a slurpie to honour Goddess, then played Skyrim for six hours. My beliefs haven't changed, but I can suspend them temporarily and it's super fun.

Most users don't care overmuch about having a "bleeding edge" browser; they would rather the browser be stable. Additionally, I find that the average user doesn't appreciate being asked to update every month and a half.

Actually, no. That's not exactly what happens. Say a manufacturing factory replaces a couple hundred of its employees with robots. How many jobs is this going to create? Not the same number it destroyed, that's for sure. Furthermore, most of those factory workers probably aren't very smart or well educated - that's why they were low-paid factory workers. Rather than getting the higher paying technology jobs, most of those workers will find other low paying jobs in industries where it's still easier to higher human workers. Others will be unable to find work and will go on welfare.

I'm not sure what the future economy is going to look like, but we're going to have a hell of a time getting there.

One of the top complaints of many gamers today is that games are getting shorter. The problem here is that increasingly, the focus of the gaming industry is shifting to the casual gamers, the ones who just want something fun to do while they're on the bus or chatting with their friends online. Most of the hardcore gamers want longer games, along with many other elements that aren't usually present in short, casual games. Unfortunately, the number of casual gamers is much larger than the number of hardcore gamers. However, the gaming industry would be retarded to ignore the gaming community in the same way that the Syfy channel would be retarded to ignore sci fi fans. There may be less of them, but they're the most valuable customers the industry has.

Case in point, I'm a hardcore Elder Scrolls fan and have played those games for hundreds of hours. I own two copies of Morrowind, four copies of Oblivion, all purchased new, and I've pre-ordered Skyrim. I buy the Collector's Editions and all the DLC's. So tell me, is Bethesda stupid for spending years making each game as rich and epic as possible? Should they shift their focus to the casual gamers? It could be more profitable in the short run, but they'd be losing out in other ways - and they know it. People will still be playing Elder Scrolls games long after Farmville has died and the casual gamers have moved on to the next new thing.