You forgot to include the cost of approx. $80K/yr for the individual needed to watch the cameras...and that's if you get someone with no training and you only need one.

So you are saying they want to do to the Mac and Linux ecosystem what they did to the MS ecosystem. Hmmm...no, I'll pass.

"part of the aversion to doing "white people stuff" (where that aversion exists) is the result of disbelief at the prospect of actually becoming accepted among white people"

While that may be part of it, another part is that doing "white people stuff" means you are not doing black people stuff and hence are not black enough. I tend to think it has a heavy does of socio-economic bias built into it. If you are brought up in a poverty stricken area with a majority race, that race and poverty are seen as part of the same thing. So doing anything outside of the run of the mill things for that area will brand you as "other". In black inner cities, you are acting white. In white Appalachia, you are branded effete or thinking you are better than your peers. It is the same thing, but it gets colored differently depending upon where you are.

And for management, it also helps if you are 6 foot or taller male and glib. Bonus points if it looks like your hair will turn silver over the years (Dilbert reference).

"We always suspected that Big Brother was going to subcontract the work; now we know who got the bid!" Let me guess, you also believe WTC was an inside job.

Try this, leave your home and car unlocked so that others can have free access to your stuff. Your stuff wants to be free, let it go.

"Indifferent" is not quite the right word for the American media towards Russia. It is more actually phrased, "who gives a flying rat's ass about Russia?".

Personally, I think it comes down to whom you can fall in love with. The mechanics of sex is secondary.

What's animating China's zest for robotics is the realization that robots in other countries will put their millions out of jobs just as surely as them doing it to themselves. They just figure they would rather do it to themselves rather than have someone like the U.S. take it all away from them. Were that to happen, the fellows running the Party there can kiss their future take over of Taiwan goodbye. They just figure that if they can retake Taiwan, their toy government will finally have an air of legitimacy. Personally, I think it will always retain that unmistakable stench of Mao.

Well, if it is any like what Chinese industry has done to China, then I'm fairly sure we don't want them doing it here.

I agree, we should demand full disclosure of the chemical oil/gas companies are using or shut them down until they do disclose, with inspectors to be sure they aren't lying. However, to expect the Chinese to disclose what American companies are doing is a fools errand. They will use it as trade secrets for their own industry.

and you have evidence to back up this assertion that you'd like to share with us?

I see, so instead of constructively engaging to modify a plan built on a Republican plan, they decided to take their ball and go home. That's so mature of Republicans.

Not only that, if the polls are to be believed, Romney is now the frontrunner for the GOP Prez candidate for 2016.

The basic problem is that the U.S. let the insurance companies into the health care system back in the 60's and didn't implement national health care under Teddy Roosevelt who wanted it.

Now we have death panels...not the panels the Republicans waxed wet dream like during the passage of the ACA but the ones the insurance companies run. Yes, those are indeed death panels just like the ones the Republicans warned us about.

Currently, Americans pay for health care through a company and individual tax. That allows the insurance companies to suck up as much as they can because they amortize risk, they do not amortize outcomes. So if your doctor schedules extra needless tests to protect against possible lawsuits, that cost has been built into the system if you have health insurance. The doctors are only too happy to order them because the insurance company will pay, it is built into their risk assessment of what your life is worth to them.

My guess is that very few customers realize the details of security. Some know their information got pilfered in some way. This lot won't trust anything electronic and will make no distinction between a system like Apple's or CurrentC. However, most will merrily continue using whatever is available. Companies will continue to measure the cost of security against the cost of a breach, and still figure the cost of a breach is lower. To the individual, the cost of breach is higher.

Same here with the ATM card, it is not a debit card and I will never agree to have one. The bank was unhappy and couldn't understand why I wouldn't want the convenience of the debit card. I told them I couldn't understand why they would want me to have one.