That has to be perhaps the best AC post I've read on /. in a very long time, perhaps ever. Well done.

Fail, fail and more fail. The press, three letter agencies and especially the congress critters love to a) inflate the threat and b) give attribution when none is possible. This book is extensively researched and has footnotes out the ying-yang. Bottom line is attribution at a level where one can say "these guys did it" is rare and even saying "probably did it" is difficult. And beware that many of the players involved have multiple objectives and even relationships with each other (when convenient).

Has the resolution and reliability of initial data points improved as well? Or are we just doing a finer interpolation of model output with same data input?

Slackware Linux doesn't require an extremely powerful system to run (though having one is quite nice :). It will run on systems as far back as the 486. Below is a list of minimum system requirements needed to install and run Slackware.

        486 processor
        64MB RAM (1GB+ suggested)
        About 5GB+ of hard disk space for a full install
        CD or DVD drive (if not bootable, then a bootable USB flash stick or PXE server/network card)

Debian:

  A Pentium 4, 1GHz system is the minimum recommended for a desktop system.

Table 3.2. Recommended Minimum System Requirements
Install Type RAM (minimal) RAM (recommended) Hard Drive
No desktop 64 megabytes 256 megabytes 1 gigabyte
With Desktop 128 megabytes 512 megabytes 5 gigabytes

Ubuntu Desktop Edition

        700 MHz processor (about Intel Celeron or better)
        512 MiB RAM (system memory)
        5 GB of hard-drive space (or USB stick, memory card or external drive but see LiveCD for an alternative approach)
        VGA capable of 1024x768 screen resolution
        Either a CD/DVD drive or a USB port for the installer media

        Internet access is helpful

Linux Mint 16

System requirements:

        x86 processor (Linux Mint 64-bit requires a 64-bit processor. Linux Mint 32-bit works on both 32-bit and 64-bit processors).
        512 MB RAM (1GB recommended for a comfortable usage).
        5 GB of disk space
        Graphics card capable of 800×600 resolution
        CD/DVD drive or USB port

did nobody think to release it on the proper date or just skip that version number? No wonder so many people hate on Gnome

so of course nobody could possibly be interested in this format either, right? I mean look at it! its like holding a piece of toast up to your ear. And who wants to be able to read a whole email without having to swipe left right up and down and lets not forget pinch and zoom. Thats just plain boring. And with this great economy we're in I can totally slack off at work and watch videos half the day so all those pixels best be showing my videos (and pron!)

the core of a normal star. Once gone nova, is there really much difference in the remnant white drwarf or neutron star? A star does not go from normal to black hole in an instant.

Did NASA opensource their rocket designs? Guidance systems? Power systems? Control and systems software and hardware? Right.

and that is clearly Fahrenheit 451 as the plot revolves around banned books and book burning. If someone has not yet read that book, it is certainly the most appropriate starting point for reading during Banned Book Week. Reading other books which have been banned or censored follows from that.

Sure. Let me know when there is a Photoshop app. Let me know when apps are optimized for desktop display sizes and not a 5" phone.

Now before I get marked as a troll let me say I am not suggesting that all complaints of harrassment or assault are ficticious or embelishements. But lets be honest here - a guy looking at a woman in the office is viewed by women a lot differently than when one of their female coworkers checks out a male worker. And then there is the flipside - the woman who holds a grudge seemingly against all males because she is not pretty and does not get that kind of attention - regardless of whether she advances in her career or not. Men are damned if they do and damned if they don't while women get the free pass.

So I guess I come at this from the "fat? no of course that dress doesn't make you look fat because you aren't!" school of things because we all know what happens if you don't answer precisely that way. Isn't it time that women (as a group) just get over it?

you either have to cut services or raise other taxes

Maybe taking the punch bowl away makes governments more responsible about what they spend our money on?

And if the choice is between getting 0 (because a company leaves entirely) or a lower rate, isn't a lower rate better?

And with a lower tax rate, who benefits? Must be those naughty shareholders right? Hmm

The largest component among U.S. retirement assets remains IRAs, with $5.68 trillion for the first quarter, according to the ICI report. The second largest is the $5.37 trillion in DC plans, and the third-largest component is government defined benefit plans with $5.2 trillion in assets.

Private-sector DB plan assets remained essentially flat at $2.66 trillion for the first quarter of 2013. Since the beginning of last year, DB assets have hovered between $2.6 trillion and $2.7 trillion, the report said.

(pionline.com)

It is estimated that roughly 55% of pension assets are in equities - either directly or indirectly thru hedge funds.

Historically low total tax as a percentage of GDP in a very long time

I think that sentence disqualifies the rest of what you have said. In any event, let me try to put this in a simple way so that you can understand.

When your income is 30K units you probably own a mediocre TV.
When your income rises to 60K units you probably own a nice TV.

If your income continues to rise, are you going to a) continue buying a new, more expensive TV because you can and/or b) just keep buying more TVs in total? You would need to in order to maintain the same TV consumption as % of total personal GDP.

So the take of the government off the top as a % of GDP is an incredibly stupid way to look at this.

fuck them. Almost 2/3 prediction from existing crime stats. Gee I know a lot of cops aren't the brightest but really? Thats not enough of a leg up?

And the average age of the U2 fan is? Even the median age? 35? 40? 45?.