There's a reason we gave out cable monopolies. It was too expensive to build out the infrastructure w/o a guaranteed profit and we're too frightened of the gov't to just make it a public works project. It's either monopolies or figuring out how to counteract 50+ years of cold war propaganda about the evils of socialism...

but I pay $70/mo for good internet (that's just Internet, no TV/Phone).

The problem with relying on Fiber to save us is the same one we have with Oil & Gas right now. By the time competition is viable we're already paying so much that it impacts our overall Standard of Living ($4/gallon gas anyone?); and by then the monopolists have such massive war chests they can start off a price war the newbies can't hope to win ($2.50/gallon gas anyone?).

they were split up and then spent 20 years buying up the Baby Bells until they were right back where they started. There's an amusing video from the dailyshow of it how it happened that I can't seem to find right now. Corps can take a longer view then we can :(

The trouble with just Vote By Paper is it's equally vulnerable. It's not hard to make sure that it's tough to register for it. The mailings can (and have) "gone to the wrong address", etc, etc.

I'm not opposed to vote by paper. Indeed the bottom rung of society will still need it (they can't afford a computer + internet connection). But a two pronged assault on voter suppression is definitely a good thing. If the lower classes could vote more I don't think we'd have lower classes :P

is what's wrong with paper. Long lines in poor neighborhoods. Broken machines. Polling places closing hours early when you know people can't take time off to vote

You'll never see voting day a national holiday because the powers that be don't want the lower caste voting. Progressives do though, and we're trying to come up with ways to combat voter suppression. From the progressive standpoint who cares if it gets hacked? The paper vote has already been hacked so to hell by voter suppression that things can't get any worse.

if you can afford it. I don't know anyone who takes public transportation if they don't have to. A drive that takes me 30 minutes by Car used to take a legally blind buddy of mine 90. Try spending 3 hours a day on a smelly bus with cheap, uncomfortable seats. Find when you're a teenager, not so much when you're 30.

With the Cost of Cars going up and up and becoming unattainable for many I'd like to see a real talk about public transportation. I'd also like to see Monkeys and Unicorns shoot out of Cowboy Neal's butt. I'm thinking the latter is for likely than the former...

Any major title is gonna see two things:

1. Patches.

2. Price drops.

So why not just wait for both?

mean there isn't near as much money in education as their used to be. Might not be enough to support Microsoft's desired profit margins. Besides, the kids are probably still using Office 365 anyway, so it's all good.

Don't you lose the free market aspect once you start imposing anti-trust regulations? I think the idea is the market should be able to take care of itself, but I can't see a way for that to work in practice.

is desperately trying to come up with a Free Market solution to Net Neutrality. E.g. some way he can get Net Neutrality (which he wants) w/o the government stepping in and requiring it (which he doesn't want).

His only solution is to let Net Neutrality go away. Then when ISPs raise rates through the roof competition becomes viable again. Sorta like how we started researching fracking and Shale Oil after gas hit $4/gallon.

I don't really see it as viable. For one thing gas is only dropping temporarily while OPEC kills off the competition. Comcast has already been caught using lawsuits to stifle competition and has literally told the FCC that's it's OK if they merge with Time Warner since they never have/never will compete with them; and that it's just too expensive for new players to enter the market. Personally I think there's just too much money to be made killing a free internet....

See this..

There are basically no credible scientists arguing if global warming is a thing. There are also no credible scientists arguing over whether it will negatively impact humanity. The argument is over what's causing it and the magnitude of the damage. Please note that the consensus is that the damage will be massive, it's just about _how_ massive....

As for social science, human behavior can be measured and predicted. You seem to dismiss this outright because our methods to date have been less than prefect. Also, if you're not actually in the social sciences and taking time out of your day to read the entirety of their works it does appear like a false dichotomy because you're reading sensationalized summaries from click hungry news sights. They're not going to go over the discussions of grey area in the main papers since those don't make good headlines...

for a cooldown in the trailer? You know, you don't have to show the boring part where you balance gameplay in the *bleepin'* trailer...

While I'm on the subject, did Pixar do the trailer? If not they should sue. It looks so much like the Incredibles I was genuinely disappointed when nobody in red tights showed up.

It does look like it's gonna be another generic class based shooter though. It's gonna be hard for blizzard to pry users away from Valve. Funny, because they usually are on the other end of that equation with WoW.

our entire society is based on cheap gas. If you could put the tax money into public transportation and housing for the middle class and poor that'd be one thing. But you might find it easier to give everyone magic zero-emissions flying carpets than that. The public health benefits will be immediately lost when we all ratchet up our work weeks to 80 to pay for gas.

The entire point of the article is that lower gas prices are going to put the breaks on a massive energy tech boom. To coin another /. meme, rtfs (read the _fine_ summary) :P

the dangers of the police state pale in comparison to what 40 years of declining wages and eroding worker's rights have done. When it comes right down to it money is freedom. The rich don't worry about stop and frisk....