"but is it so difficult to imagine that the Chinese would simply not care at all about whether or not Marco Polo visited them, and would care somewhat about not offending guests and traders?"

Yes, it is hard to imagine. As the Chinese grow in power and gain significant trade leverage, the begin to display hubris when it comes to dealing with foreign nations. China and Japan are enormous trading partners, for example, I think China is around Japan's #1 trading partner and Japan is somewhere in the 3rd/4th largest range for China, yet both grandstanding and politically divisive statements come out all the time. Do you *TRULY* think that anyone in Europe would care whatsoever beyond wanting to know the truth, whether Marco Polo came to China or not? If China had evidence to support or disprove the claim, surely either way, nobody would care at all - other than wanting the evidence to either support or disprove the claim.

Yes, because Europe would no longer want to do business with China if the Chinese had asserted that Marco Polo did not visit them as he had claimed..especially when Europe itself has many skeptics. Good call out, critical thinking at its finest!

What? "never pointed out major inventions like paper" - he pointed out specifically and meticulously the use of paper money and salt. http://www.history.com/news/ma...

"Historians before him have touched on these issues while defending Marco Polo’s honor, but Vogel also relies on another compelling body of evidence: the explorer’s meticulous descriptions of currency and salt production in the Yuan era. According to Vogel, Polo documents these aspects of Mongol Chinese civilization in greater detail than any of his Western, Arab or Persian contemporaries, a hint that the Venetian relied on his own powers of observation. Polo’s claims about the size of paper money and the value of salt, among other aspects, check out against archaeological evidence and Chinese documents maintained by Yuan officials, Vogel concluded."

One thing I find interesting - is that they teach Chinese students of Marco Polo in China. I would imagine that, if presented with "Hey, look, this dude from Europe visited you guys hundreds of years ago and did trade with the Mongols!" the first to refute and expose that would be the Chinese, as it would seem that their history would more likely be the source of truth (or closer to the source) rather than simply speculating on the contents of his verbal transcript.

**s/subsidy/subsidiary

Butthurt that a subsidy you acquired didn't get a piece of the action. Don't dare let successful companies who have won contracts keep those contracts without getting something out of it.

I love the reasoning, since it neglects the fact that they're the ones who should cover the *opportunity cost* of the supposed resident who may down the road want their service. Since when could companies charge people for the potential opportunity cost of other people? That's a wonderful precedent.

In order to justify expenses and hopefully get them covered by your employer - you need to present a business case. This means identifying what you plan to gain (realistically) and how that will benefit the employer, ultimately relating that to an efficiency or performance increase in some measurable way, which ultimately impacts the bottom line - the business decision your boss needs to make is: "Is this going to be profitable for us down the road..." and thinking that through deeply comes down to many factors, including the replacement/time cost should you go elsewhere as a result of the decision. If you can't put together a good business case as to why you should be there, then likely you should expect to pay for it on your own -- unless previous discussions included that sort of thing as a 'perk' of your employment.

It all comes down to business sense. Surely your boss would love to send you - however, for him to justify it to anyone who asks, it needs to also be a sound *business* decision..and that's where you need to put on your non-techy hat and instead, think about cost-benefit.

The OP is just a whiny anecdotal bitch. First, when you complain about performance, you provide relevant hardware information. Then, you provide statistics. Ultimately, you can say "look!" -- but without either of the first and second item, you just appear to be a random whiner.

The bottom line isn't about what is cheaper and what can be put in - it's the users.

When I ordered my wife's new phone, I asked how much memory she wanted. She didn't know - said her current one is 64, so at least 64. I said hold on, wait:

Went home, checked her phone, said, "You realize with all the apps, photos, videos, etc..you've only breached 5gigs on your phone, right?"

Many users simply *do not need the capacity*. Just because many of us are geeks, install a ton of stuff, and store a lot of media, doesn't mean most people do. Many people use their phones _as phones_ and enjoy the simple features of photo/videos on demand on occasion, reasonable security, being able to video chat, etc...and have a good UI to work with. They don't *need* huge storage. A reason why 16 gig models are often the best selling isn't because everyone utilizes cloud storage - but because they simply DO NOT NEED that much storage, and just want the built in features.

Think: Customer centric. It'd do many of the previous posters some good -- calling yourself an IT genius does nothing if your technology doesn't serve real people.

You're making the presumption that diabetes and heart palpitations don't get the better of 'em.

They'll have to make up a cover story and 'fake' it, or there'll be riots.

Boeing is the ISS's primary contractor.. they designed and built a lot of it. I don't see how it is unreasonable to grant them as much as they did in relation to SpaceX - even though I personally much rather see SpaceX make something amazing for less as I expect they will.

Huh? "Auto rickshaws" are to Rickshaws what minivans are to wheelbarrows. Wikipedia more, it's a good replacement for actual knowledge or critical thinking skills.

Seriously. April Fools come early? Or Late?

Rickshaws were outlawed in China ages ago, because it's a um....very demeaning method of transportation (not that there aren't tons of other demeaning things going on). You may as well strap a pipe and plaid top hat on to match your monocle while riding around in a f'n rickshaw, shouting "Good DAY, kind sir, good DAY" and "Jolly ho".

From what I see about Musk through interviews, articles, etc.. I can imagine that there is one obvious reason why Tesla would never enter a dealership model:

'Cause they don't want to get customers' shit on their dicks while they fuck them repeatedly for every penny they can.

I don't usually respond to AC, but, your response had sufficient effort that it demands one.

First, I'll start by saying it's clear you don't know much about China, or Chinese law. Your perspective is flawed simply because it appears to be based on illusions/speculations/whatever media you've been fed or led to believe rather than facts. Do you really think the comparison between US courts and China courts -- ala "if US courts wouldn't.....gee gosh, how could you expect CHINESE courts to!" -- you realize they are two different countries with far differing regulations and laws, and it's not all "US is better in every way" - trust me, I've been *through* the court system in China, personally, for almost 1 year of my life. I know a lot more about 'how it works' than the average AC :D Not to mention:

He's a lawyer. Do you proclaim that you know more about the Chinese legal system, or reprecussions for going against the government in any fashion, than a Chinese lawyer in China? I find that a little arrogant and presumptive - to say the least. You say you support wisdom, is it wise to presume you know more about people who *obviously* are knee-deep in subjects you know nothing more than you've gleaned through normal interactions in a distant world and a bit of scattered internet-info in an entirely different language than the country uses daily? Hell, even the article quotes are translated, what kind of nonsense is this?

Wisdom, pfft.