we've found silicon based flora in our own deep oceans

Citation needed. There are no silicon-based life forms known to man.

They don't have an emission spectrum that can be analyzed?

What if they rinse it off a bit beforehand?

The EU should first hold a public contest with a large monetary reward to develop an algorithm that can reliably and objectively distinguish between porn and not-porn. Good luck, though.

Not to mention the beautiful expressiveness and readability of things like:

(and (or (= (string-length "hello world") (string->number "11"))
(string=? "hello world" "good morning"))
(>= (+ (string-length "hello world") 60) 80))

Especially for the average 9th grader.

"Is it time to stop spending billions on obsolete aircraft?"

You just don't get it, do you? The point isn't the weapons system, it's the expenditure.

The "sequestration" cuts are $85B out of $3.6T, or ~2.4 %. This has motivated politicians from both parties, and loud-mouthed political actors of all stripes, to make wild claims about terrible consequences if the cuts were to be made. The implicit claim is that cutting 2.4% across the board would result in an "unready, hollow force", 9% unemployment, and all sorts of other horrific things (which I'm sure you've heard of by now).

Is it even true? From cutting a measly 2.4% of future spending? Or is it yet another shock doctrine exercise to distract us from other things we should be paying attention to instead? There's a book, BTW.

• How did we get de-industrialized over the past 40 years? Was there an upside for someone, and if so, who?
• Why does petroleum cost over $100/bbl when there is no shortage, demand has been decreasing since 2008, and it costs a small fraction of that to produce?
• Who supports "Al Qaeda"? (Hint)
• Why is wealth distribution becoming more and more polarized?
• Do wealthy companies, individuals, and organizations control the world's governments through (surprisingly affordable) "lobbying"?
• What will you retire on?
• How will climate change affect you over your lifetime?
• Where will your potable water come from 20 years from now?
• Why do we continue to eat such a massively unhealthy diet? What fraction of "out of control" medical care costs are directly attributable to that?
• Will your job or a job like it still exist in 2025? What will you be doing then?
• Why did we invade Iraq? Why are we still in Afghanistan? Why are we rattling our sabers at Iran if our "allies" in the middle east are by far the greatest financiers of terrorism?

etc.

... the Workers' Paradise.

How much would it cost, who would put up the money and in exchange for what, how long would it take, and what useful or compelling purpose would it serve?

"Studying the effects of space travel on humans" is a dumb piece of circular logic, so it is an incorrect answer. "Because humans need/want to explore blah blah blah" is also incorrect because the cost of manned space exploration is so high that it drastically reduces the amount of exploration that can be done, so it too is an incorrect answer.

Hint: It would have to be done with robots over a period of at least 100 years with the construction of numerous intermediate way stations.

25 % of Americans consume fast food every day

20% of meals are eaten in the car

88 percent of young Americans couldn't find Afghanistan on a map, 75 percent couldn't locate Iran or Israel, and 63 percent couldn't identify Iraq

More Than 40 Percent of Americans Believe the Rapture Is Coming

That 71% think we have an extra trillion dollars or two to go to Mars for no useful or compelling purpose is no great surprise. Depressing? Disconcerting? Tragic? Sure, but not surprising.

We can safely assume you are not a marketing drone and therefore are not well-versed in the prevailing MBA cloud-marketing horseshit.

'As we move toward the cloud and technology gets easier to use, we'll have less need for full-time teams of people to maintain our stuff.'

Gavin Newsom, present. This guy is a political diva. Don't pay attention to him. His book and his overall schtick are pure self-promotion. In California, "lieutenant governor" means "guy who has no duties whatsoever and is there in case the governor dies or something."

Rubbish. That's a very naive straw man. It is very unlikely that such a person would laugh in your face. Books were manually transcribed at high cost, low availability, and uncertain completeness and accuracy back then. Demand for printed books exploded precisely because everyone in academia and business already had a burning need for them. That is most certainly not the case with arbitrarily moving every web or device innovation into the classroom. The distraction alone from this or that messaging or social media service is highly disruptive. In learning you want to engage people's minds. Not much technology is really needed for that. If it buys you convenience then great, do it. Otherwise it's a waste of time and resources. Unfortunately, it will be another 10 years before it becomes clear what was useful and what was cosmetic paraphernalia fetishism.

I agree. It is unsubstantiated horseshit to insist on moving every little gadget, app, or web innovation into the classroom. Like any other tools, they should be leveraged when there is a significant benefit in doing so. Being up to the minute on Web-Whatever-Dot-O just to be cool and futuristic is a fool's errand, not to mention a potentially large waste of resources.

He is actually a poster child for TFA