The only measure of economic prosperity that matters is actual resources (goods and services with real value) produced. FOSS does this.

Measuring economic prosperity by numbers of jobs is the kind of backwards thinking that artificial scarcity encourages.

No doubt your great-grandfather was up in arms about horseless carriages putting horses out of work.

It was a tool, albeit a very advanced one. They still had doctors in Star Trek, so that should tell you something. I never got the impression that tricorders had any AI capabilities - though maybe it could use the results of a general test to choose some more specific tests to run.

The prize criteria set the bar WAY too high, IMO.

Intelligence is not fixed at birth. The brain is a muscle that can - and must - be exercised to fulfil its owner's potential.

And only the top percentile of humanity gets to have a job in the medicine/science professions? What sort of Gattaca-fueled world do you live in?

Virus or no, I would have removed that download link due to a horrendously ugly UI. Egads.

"The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain."

I love that site. :D

Hopefully none of the many knee-jerk, sarcasm-oblivious mods will mod you troll for that.

Best part: "Compatible with IT departments that fear changes".

I assume you mean the door in "We Are Not Alone". I got caught by this bug too.

There's several workarounds for it. Here's the one that I used (uses noclip):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaE-OkYhsAM

I hope there's an official fix for this soon, but I'm not holding my breath. They'll probably finish Episode 3 before they get a patch done. -_-

So what you're telling me is... that's no moon?

(couldn't resist)

I have no idea why Japan uses 100V for home wiring, but don't be too sure about Japan adopting the most efficient standards. Almost all the plugs and sockets you find here are ungrounded. Half the country is on 50Hz, and the other half uses 60Hz. I don't think these are deliberate choices. It's just that the opposition to change can sometimes be mind-boggling here - from a foreign perspective.

So even if the US moves away from 110, you can always bring it over to Japan, since I'm sure they'll be using 100 until the end of time.

That article manages to say so little in so many words, one of which is "leverage". When it does actually say something, it's just baseless "X is dead" statements.

On second thought, I guess that does say a lot, in its own way.

Just curious... this sounds like a reference to some specific event. Is it?

I too have a system that works most of the time, and it's worth every penny that I never paid for it. :)

Errr... Linux, not a pirated copy of Windows, in case you were wondering.

Psst, you forgot to post anonymously. You know, so you can pretend like you aren't posting on /. when you actually are. ;)

I just used up all my mod points today, so OF COURSE you had to go and make this hilarious post.

By the way, if you don't adopt this as your sig within the next week, it officially becomes up for grabs. >.>

I wonder where you heard this from. In standard US public schools, we most definitely cover world history. The focus is overwhelmingly on Europe, especially within the last 500 years, but other parts of the world as well as antiquity are covered.

The problem is that world knowledge of most Americans tends to peak at this age. Once you graduate into the "real world", you find that most news doesn't cover world events, unless it's something sensational like war or terrorism.

If you've never watched mainstream American news broadcasts (CNN, MSNBC, or god help you, Fox) give it a try. I'm curious to see how well it might match up with your idea of American news.