They're policing the world in the same sense a bully "polices" his classroom. In either case, nobody asked them to and nobody wants them to.

Nobody asked them to? What planet are you from? If Europeans didn't want US troops in Europe, they could leave NATO, ask US troops to leave, and pay for their own defense. The US tax payer would thank them enormously. Instead, Europeans are happy to be protected by US troops, even happier not to have to pay for it, and then have the gall to complain about how "militaristic" the US supposedly is.

Orly? Who will be glad for the US taking the case when Julian Assange gets extradited?

Oh, typical: Europe is getting rid of a political hot potato and then placing the blame on the US.

Believe me, the US would love to be able to get out of Europe and Asia. The reason we don't is because Europeans are clearly still not capable of managing their own affairs. Europe doesn't even live up to its commitments under NATO, and whenever there is any problem, it is Europe that calls for US help. Many of the things you accuse the US of is exactly what Europe has been doing for centuries and continues to attempt (but fortunately lacks the power to push through in many cases these days).

But, CmdrPony, with your ignorant, knee-jerk anti-Americanism, you are part of a long tradition of European totalitariansim, fascism, communism, and nationalism. I expect once the US tax payer gets tired of paying for the US military and pulls out of Europe, it will be people like you who will start WWIII.

The ".com" domain is the domain for US commercial entities; there is no other. Because the US is fairly laissez-faire about it, a lot of foreign registrants have been able to get .com domains, but that doesn't make the TLD "international".

Europe has jurisdiction over .eu, .fr, .de, and other TLDs. The US has jurisdiction over .com, .edu, .org, ..net and a few others.

I just don't like to waste my money on inferior technology. I'm going to buy the Galaxy Nexus the day it comes out, though ;-)

One of the more profound ways that the iPhone changed the mobile industry was the fact that it upended the relationship between the handset maker and the wireless carrier:

It sure did! Instead of a big, evil corporation screwing their customers, charging inflated prices, and delivering a product prone to failures... we now have another big, evil corporation screwing their customers, charging inflated prices, and delivering a product prone to failures!

Have a look here:

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2011/06/06/School-Budgets-The-Worst-Education-Money-Can-Buy.aspx#page1

Which public school district spends the most taxpayer money per student? One in Beverly Hills, perhaps? Or one in the swanky Park Avenue area of Manhattan?

Actually, it's a district in Camden, N.J., according to new Census data on public school spending. Best known for urban blight and local corruption, Camden has an unemployment rate of 17 percent and 35 percent of its 80,000 inhabitants live below the poverty line. Fifty percent of residents are black, 15.5 percent white, 2.6 percent Asian; 10,000 people are crammed into each square mile. In 2008, the Federal Bureau of Investigation ranked it as the most dangerous city in America.

Camden High School, with an enrollment of 1,200 students, has less than a 40 percent graduation rate, and the former district chief of security Thomas Hewes-Eddinger has called it a âoemini-jail.â Yet the district spends $23,356 per student, more than twice the national average.

Nearly 2,200 miles away lies the opposite example: the lowest-cost school district . Alpine school district is located in American Fork, Utah, a town of 27,000 people at the foot of Mount Timpanogos. The racial makeup is 95 percent white, 0.16 percent black and 0.65 percent Asian. The town's median household income is $52,000; 4 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. The district spends a mere $5,658 per student, nearly half the national average, and has a 78 percent graduation rate.

Although they represent the extremes, these very different districts illustrate a troubling pattern that emerges in the school-spending data: The 10 most expensive schools have some of the lowest graduations rates, and the 10 schools that spend the least per student have some of the highest.

You could give equal budgets to all schools independent of where are they located, for example. We don't and that is one way we make society systemically racist.

That may or may not be a good idea (and there is considerable redistribution of money at the state level already), but it has nothing to do with racism. The fact that poor black neighborhoods have bad schools is because they are poor, not because they are black. A black school district can make the same tradeoffs in terms of school financing as an equivalently poor white school district.

Furthermore, poor education is not a question of money; even poor school districts in the US spend a lot more money (PPP) per student than most school systems around the world.

There may be no laws in place, but the system is set up in a way that is biased.

It's not racially biased. It's economically biased: if you have more money, you can do more things. How and why do you propose to change that?

Poor people are disproportionally black, and tend to live with areas with shitty schools and no jobs. Bam! They aren't getting out of it!

Blacks are poorer because there used to be discrimination until 1-2 generations ago. That's been abolished, and now their incomes are slowly rising and improving, at about the same rate as other poor people. It probably takes another half dozen generations until the inequality has gone away. It is just totally irrational to expect blacks to become as rich on average as whites within such a short time..

We have the same shit with the Romas here, and nobody likes to talk about it.

Romas actually experience clear legal discrimination and prevented from integration. That is different from African Americans.

Possibility 3 isn't a "contributing factor", it is the only factor for which there is any evidence. Only a few percent of US graduate students in computer science are black, an even smaller percentage go on to do a Ph.D. I haven't seen a shred of evidence that there is bias against any minority in Silicon Valley. In SV, companies go out on a limb to get anybody who is qualified; the idea that they'd reject someone because if their skin color is ridiculous.

Don't worry, the US Congress rarely gives a damn about what people in other countries think. And neither should they; that's not what they get elected for.

No search warrant was obtained. They couldn't even prove probable cause when they attempted to get a warrant, so they found a loophole. Anything else?

Well, so it's up to Congress to close that loophole... or not. Until they do, that's the law. Whenever that may happen, it will probably be too late for the Icelandic MP.

So if they rule that the data must be kept private, how exactly are they planning on enforcing that ruling? I suppose the Council of Europe could use rude language, but... wait, they are doing that already.

Apple markets the iPhone 4S extensively featuring the "Dual Core A5" chip, and before that the "Retina" display. Apple uses technobabble when it suits them. Of course, they are usually behind on specs so they downplay them.

Of course, if you look at the Samsung Galaxy SII page, there is less technobabble than for the iPhone marketing. It talks about the stunning display, fast downloads, wireless sharing, voice talk, and apps. No technobabble.

http://www.samsung.com/us/microsite/galaxysII/

This persistent accusation against Apple competitors is itself an Apple marketing gimmick... and a lie.

(Of course, the Samsung is also a much better phone than the iPhone 4S, at a lower price.)

It's because Android devices are marketed for nerds, by nerds.

The entire marketing department of a dozen different phone manufacturers is supposed to be nerds? It is nerds that are supposed to be responsible for putting out the vapid, shallow Motorola commercials? However, the source of this "it is nerds" refrain is quite clear: it's Apple's marketing department. They are trying to portray Apple as the "easy-to-use solution for the rest of us" while painting everybody else as being run by nerds for nerds. Really, man, stop being such a stupid Apple tool and stop doing their marketing for them.

The iPhone ad shown in the article is actually perfect. It answers why, it shows what you can do and it doesn't go on and on about things users don't directly care about, like processor speed.

And that's why Apple keeps touting their specs on the rare occasion where they are actually ahead? Retina display?

And the "answers" Apple gives are largely lies: lies about capabilities that their products are supposed to have and others don't, lies about who invented those capabilities, and lies about freedoms and future developments.

She didn't claim "linkage", she claimed causation. And that is nutty.

I wonder how much of the good baroness's success results from taking politically expedient "scientific" positions based on very limited data.