We don't have to bury it at all. We could reprocess almost all the high level nuclear waste and turn it into some kind of usable form. But alas, reprocessing is taboo here in the US, so we like to ship it to France (paying them to take it), have them reprocess it, and then buy it back from them.

As an example, let's say that you have a hotel room. You go out on the town one day and come back to your laptop, camera, etc, all missing. It isn't a stretch to say the hotel stole them. The only people that should have had access to the room were yourself and the hotel. There's no 'losing them' because no one should have taken them into their possession to begin with. The MOST that should have happened was that they get rearranged within the room so that housekeeping can better clean up the room (like moved off the bed and into the chairs/onto the table).

This isn't even like when the TSA rips off your goods from your bags...because it could have been LOTS of people in the airport, not just the TSA.

The problem is that the trend simply can't go on forever. It'll come to the point where companies have to start selling off vast assets and workers just to pay the ruling class a little more, then you get a bunch of chiefs yelling at each other to make some profit, but there's no more workers, and they sure aren't going to dirty their hands.

This only applies to companies that actually provide products/services, not investment firms and the like that just shift money around between accounts to generate a couple of bucks.

It isn't scary. YET. Currently, the FBI really only sticks its nose into people that have done something 'big.' Getting electronic communication records should be only for matters of national security or life and death time sensitive situations. They rarely had problems before getting witnesses to talk, and there are almost always witnesses. Either someone saw you shoot the guy or your friend you were texting about it got mad at you and wants to make sure you go away.

It will become a lot scarier once automated software flags out all kinds of interesting keywords, which all get followed up on. Ma'am, we're here because you texted the word pot to your friend. We now have probable cause to arrest you and search your home, pending an investigation into the sale and/or use of illegal drugs. They've already been arrested for the same reason, only we found some expired pain medication in their cabinet so brought them in for possession of narcotics. In addition to that, your husband will lose their security clearance and your children will be placed in protective custody for the duration.

Fear mongering about China.

The US has treaties that we're probably ready to break at a moment's notice concerning weapons (offensive or defensive) in space. Honestly, if we thought the Chinese would instantly shoot down something they didn't like that we put in space, we'd launch something that would allow oppressed Chinese citizens some freedom that their government couldn't control. Then we'd use the resulting fallout (hopefully not a pun) to get economic sanctions against China and improve our own economic standing. I doubt it would be all out war over a satellite, especially since they are no slouch when it comes to military.

That's my analysis, take it for what you will.

My analysis banks on the fact that we even found out that the Chinese shot it down. It might just 'randomly' fail according to us. Or it might get knocked down by some satellite North Korea launched claiming as their own (but was actually given to them by China). It might get hit with 'space debris.' Who knows? I doubt they'd launch a missile in space from their mainland that took out the missile. The Chinese aren't stupid.

Cable companies: Here's what we want you to do, Hulu.

Hulu: LOL no that's stupid.

Cable companies: Here's all the dirt we have on you and all the patents we're going to say you violate. Do as we say or we'll lock you up in court for so long that every cent you have will go to paying lawyers or you'll be banned from doing business.

Hulu: You wouldn't dare!

Cable companies: We spend more money in coke-fueled strip club outings in a week than you make per quarter in revenue.

We have a pretty good grasp on the physics of a paperclip, even at the subatomic level. Since we know most of the rules, we can simplify the interactions. Eventually this kind of simulation the article talks about will be able to be run on a desktop computer once we can 'compress' it enough.

A small reactor in simulations fails about as much as a big reactor, only it can be built to be a tomb if something goes wrong and the worst happens. Look at B&W's mPower modular reactor design, for example.

They have. When I was a kid in the 80s, I remember fucking everything having some premium number to call in on for something. Video games, toys, candy, ice cream cones..you didn't see that kind of shit on things like beach towels or tampons. It was clear they were targeting children.

They were eventually regulated pretty heavily by the FCC, including not being allowed to target children anymore. So then they moved on to psychic networks, stock tips, and phone sex lines.

Basically, the reasoning was that it was easy as shit to wait for your parents to be out of the room and then grab the phone and start dialing. You can totally get away with it too because they have no idea you like GI Joe it could have been the dog even.

Restraining orders can be served in absentia if the party who is to be served is actively avoiding being served and the judge believes that. When the restraining order is broken, they'll arrest them, serve them with the restraining order, and if the infraction wasn't too severe, let them off with a warning since they weren't served before. If what they were doing was illegal anyway even without the retraining order, they'll be held in violation of it even though they didn't know about it.

iPhones, expensive as they are, constitute felony theft in many areas. The police LOVE to go after felonies if they don't have much else to do. By contrast, felony theft WILL get you arrested and not just a summons. Regular theft is pretty much a slap on the wrist and a fine, maybe probation. Felony theft starts with a large fine and probation if you have a clean record..if not you're going to do at least thirty days IF you can pay the owner back..if not you might do six months.

Now they're seeking to make abstinence-only education the norm and to define hand holding and kissing as sexual behavior. I wish my state would also ban dentistry so we can look like the fucking toothless yokels we are for letting shit like this pass.

Stand your Ground laws need to be appended a bit. Here's why. Suppose you get in a random fight at a bar. Most bar fights end pretty quickly when the two realize that getting punched sucks, or when they get ejected. However, with Stand your Ground laws the way they are, you have no duty to retreat and can simply pull out your gun and shoot them as soon as they get the upper hand over you, saying that you fear for your life. Similarly, when you pull your gun, they'll pull their gun, saying they fear for their life. So what you have is both combatants standing their ground and the fight won't end until someone (or both of them) is dead.

It also leads to situations where you could go pick a fight with someone and then shoot them before they even get to you because you feared for your life because you thought they had a weapon.

There's going to be a lot of people using Stand your Ground laws as an excuse to escalate a run of the mill fight into a deadly situation that wouldn't otherwise have turned deadly. Some things might be justified, like if someone is car jacking you or trying to force their way into your home, but other things wouldn't..like someone catching you in bed with their wife and ending up dead because you feared for your life and had no duty to retreat from their home.

Why not punish the abusers and not simply everyone that has to return things? A while back I purchased an LCD monitor from Walmart. There was a problem with the screen so I took it back and got an exchange. Well, there was a problem with THAT screen too, so I took it back. The second time they went through a lot of trouble of writing down serial numbers whereas the first time they didn't. They also checked it for any signs of tampering to make sure maybe I didn't crack it open, take the innards, and have a 'naked' monitor sitting around.

Immediately behind me was an obese woman with an empty food box demanding a refund because she didn't like the food.

Ahh, but this is nearly undetectable. While some people COULD come together and go all CSI and maybe find a few suspicious people, it wouldn't be 'beyond a shadow of a doubt' to see someone standing around in front of Walmart with a backpack on.

Relative safety increases the chances some psycho is going to try to fulfill their desires. If people suddenly had a 99% chance of robbing a bank and getting away with it, there'd be a lot more bank robberies.