I think OP means embedded links and other services that spawn a browser tab, and that make a clean hyperlink hard to acquire. Also, if you want to avoid MS search results, duckduckgo is just about the last browser I'd use given their ties to MS, and how they preferentially return MSN-wrapped search results that force app download to even view.

The Korean response is impressive. It did an amazing job at initial containment so they could ensure their health care system stabilizes while everyone learns the scope of the problem. Unfortunately, the goal of actual containment is now known to be impossible unless they isolate themselves globally, for years, while the rest of the world attains herd immunity. The game changed on them.

As a result, while Korea did an amazing job, it is also no longer an endgame plan. The other side of the coin of succeeding at initial containment means they are also further from herd immunity. Local containment in Korea just means that their highly susceptible population will be re-infected once isolation and social distancing is lifted. They will have to carefully manage that. Their experience to date will greatly help them manage the disease, no doubt, allowing them to tune the level of social distancing to ensure their health care system is not overwhelmed while they progress toward herd immunity.

Make no mistake - there is no scenario short of crippling isolation where Korea is not re-infected. And there isn't much they can do to lower the death rate other than providing good care, leaving a certain floor on the total number of deaths they will likely incur by the time herd immunity is attained. Sadly, the vast majority of their infections and deaths are in the future, and there isn't much they - or anyone - can do to prevent it.

Bottom line - yes, the US response has been miserable to date, but using the per-capita Korean death rate as a goal doesn't really have any meaning anymore.

That is a disturbingly insightful description of modern engineering practice. Good managers can flip that though - put someone with confidence in that DOORS role, and tell them not to sign off on a requirement unless they would be prepared to testify in court that they believed it was righteous. And teach them how to sprinkle a few discoverable emails here and there to document any pressure put on them to accept bullshit. Of course, that requires a manager who is prepared to be a human shield for his/her team. Sadly that's something in short supply these days, but I'd like to think theres a few of us left. Maybe not at boeing though. I'm starting to preferentially book Airbus flights, lately.

Except if nothing else worked, you could at least use the disc to get the hardware working long enough to limp to the internet and get the drivers. Also, on timeline - I agree with you by the mid 2000s, but drivers on the web in the 90s? You're kidding right?

Why? What is his page missing that would be solved by CSS, or Node.js, or whatever other bloated frameworks du jour can offer? I find the simplicity refreshing, and an interesting commentary on modern webpage design.

I can read it, its probably about 10kb total, and I bet it loads in microseconds. All he needs is a banner ad that says "get off my lawn".

Great point on japan. Only catch with the "stay quiet and wait them out" approach is they can reset the clock if they file new charges. This became a big story this past year when Carlos Ghosn, former ceo of the renault/nissan/Mitsubishi alliance, was imprisoned for many months under such circumstances as they kept filing new charges every time the clock would run out on the time they could hold him. Your point holds, of course - dont snitch on yourself.

I have a PhD in chemistry, so I've been through all the classes mentioned.

Organic is, in fact, the only one you absolutely CAN memorize. Unlike the math-based chemistry classes where you have to learn principles, which the pre-meds struggle mightily with, the memorization-heavy organic chemistry is the one that is considered to be similar enough to medical school that it is used as a weed-out.

This is particularly true of organic *synthesis*, vs. organic *mechanisms*. Mechanistic organic is often presented as a first semester organic class, and that does actually require knowledge and understanding. Synthesis, however, is nearly straight memorization, even if you don't want to.

I was happy when the pre-meds stopped taking the major-level chemistry classes (mostly after organic). It made my physical chemistry classes much more interesting. It didn't keep the one pre-med in the class from whining the entire time that he wasn't getting the answers spoon-fed to him from the book, though.

So I don't know where the author is coming from, because they completely got it wrong.

Based on that, and on my viewpoint as a Google employee who builds some of the internal security systems that the NSA would have to compromise to snoop, I am completely convinced that Google is telling the truth when it says that it has not given the NSA any sort of direct or indirect access.

I don't know if they are intentionally being this clever - but if the execs were to claim daily that they aren't bending over for the NSA, the day they stop claiming it is the day you know they are bent over by the NSA. In effect, their denials become a "dead man's switch" of sorts that circumvents the inability to tell the world that you have to comply with the NSA's tentacles.

This is foolproof unless the NSA can either 1) forbid the entire populace to cease speaking about the entire topic of surveillance, or 2) compel people to lie.

I couldn't find that in the text. However, that likely doesn't mean "open source" as in software. It means "open source", as in, the source of info is, well, open. Think things like broadcasts, newspapers, slashdot...

Nobody wants to see some pocket-protector-wearing nerd trying to bed Kelly McGillis.

As opposed to a midget in elevator shoes?

Plus the fight scenes would've been incredibly boring.

I don't know. Seems to me that the whole video-game-that's-really-combat angle has worked in the past...

Besides, I'd say that since drones can pull g forces that would kill or incapacitate pilots, those fight scenes would kick ass.

zapped his brain's auditory cortex with a mild dose of electricity. The result, he claims, was a dramatic improvement in his ability to hear pitch, including the sour notes he produced himself.

How the hell would he know if it didn't? Can we get testimonials of his friends? Otherwise, I'm claiming placebo effect.

for 50 years, the federal government has taxed nuclear fuel to build a permanent waste depository. where is it?

As much as I love blasting on our danged ole federal gummint, on this one I have to blame the NIMBY asshats in Nevada. You see, the Feds identified a pretty damned good place in Yucca Mountain. The place is geologically pretty stable, made of solid rock, and has a crazy low water table. Oh, and it's about 100 miles away from civilization, which in this case means Las Vegas.

The feds spent decades fighting the locals to get this done, until Obama finally capitulated to the NIMBYs as fronted by Sen. Harry Reid, killing the project and leaving a total lack of long term storage. Quid pro quo for something, no doubt.

I'd buy it, if only for a chance to start harassing The Woz for tech support.

What's awesome about that guy? I bet he'd do it.

Obama is a centrist, not a leftist, especially with regard to civil liberties.

Sorry buddy, where civil liberties are concerned he's practically a fascist. This shit - IRS, AP, Fox News, drone kills, etc, etc, etc - is so far over the line that Bush II established, it isn't even funny. In either the sardonic or the ha-ha sense. Obama, on the topic of openness and liberty, is worse than Bush II in every way.

And if the media were as motivated to take Obama down as they were to take Nixon down, I expect this would be a lot bigger than it is now. As it is, he gets the kid gloves treatment, and somehow his excuses about not knowing about this shit get swallowed.

The more I see from this president, the more disgusted I become. Mostly because he has become exactly the sort of person he claimed to be against during his first "hopey changey" campaign. Every politician becomes a hypocrite upon gaining office, but this one wins the prize.